What is Peak Oil, and how can I prepare for it?

Answer 1

The idea is that there is a limited amount of oil in the world. If we're at peak oil, that means that it's unlikely we'll find much more, and certainly not enough to meet growing demand. Many say we're at peak oil right now, although they did find some new reserves off the Gulf Coast. Even if we're not, things are going to get tight, what with China and India working hard towards becoming developed nations.

To prepare, you can begin switching over to more sustainable forms of energy. For instance, you can get a biodiesel car, or a full hybrid if you can't put that much effort into it. Maybe you can install solar panels on your house. These things are better for the environment, anyway, which will help with global warming.

Answer 2

If you are talking about the Hubbert Peak in oil production it is simply the year when the world produces less oil than the year before. Law of supply and demand would tend to indicate that this would lead to significant increases in the price of petroleum products. Oil has always been pretty inexpensive, so we have gotten used to gasoline being produced from oil that was shipped around the world, refined into a variety of boutique blends, trucked to our neighborhood gas station where we can pump the stuff into our car at a price cheaper than bottled water packaged a few miles upstream of our house. Gas is going to get more expensive, so get a car with better mileage. It doesn't have to be one of todays hybrids, since they take years to pay for the price premium. Simply get a car that gets at least 25 mpg in the city and you are halfway there, if it gets 30 mpg in the city you are even better off. I know that sounds kind of silly, but the fact is that most cars are driven about 15,000 miles per year. This means you will use 1000 gallons at 15 mpg, 600 gallons at 25 mpg and 500 gallons at 30 mpg. Multiply those gallon figures by $3 and $6 each. By simply getting a 30 mpg car you have insulated yourself from the vast majority of direct consequences of a run up in gas prices.
But, technology is only now coming onto the scene that changes this in a fundamental way. In the 1800's people began to move off the farm and work for others, which was a huge change. Lately there has been a huge hue and cry about how computers are changing the world, bull. They got people off the phone and onto the net, they did nothing but improve business efficiency slightly. The industrialization of labor, huge. Computers , not so huge. But one of the side issues of the industrialization of labor was the centralization of the distribution of energy and information. Exxon, Ma Bell, CBS and Pepco assumed a quiet dominance that is hard to comprehend. But what is happening now is revolutionary! A plug in hybrid allows you to drive 30-50 miles without using a drop of gasoline, and they are available now, in a kit form that can be installed at garage near you. If you put a wind generator on the roof of your home it is entirely possible that you won't need to go to the gas station more than once every 3 or 4 months. It won't matter if Peak Oil drives the price up to $6 a gallon, or even $12 a gallon, because you will be using so much less the increase in price will simply not counterbalance the increase in your cars efficiency. {Huge caveat, $12 gas will cause unGodly inflation because shipping goods to you will get more expensive, best hedge against inflation is Gold}
The other players, Ma Bell, CBS and Pepco are also losing their power to control us, the internet lets us tell the telephone companies to take a flying leap, blogs are destroying what little credibility the large networks once had and the power companies are beginning to realize that a combination of wind power and photovoltaics can be used by a large portion (albeit a minority) of americans to reduce the control these large corporations have held over us for years.
Technology is what will allow us to tell Exxon we'd rather not use gasoline unless we choose to do so, to tell Cingular that we are going to use the net to make most of our calls, to tell the network news programs that we have better sources for our intel, and to tell our power companies that they will be lucky to get our business.

Understand one thing, oil is crucially important because oil was cheap. It was a simple, incredibly compact, safe source of energy. As oil gets more expensive, we will waste less on transport and the price increases will slow. Keep a close eye on the development of PHEV (Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicle) tech, that is where the true short and medium term response to peak oil will be. Medium to Long term it will be battery powered electric vehicles. If you see a push for Hydrogen, check on the well to wheels efficiency. It is abysmal. Hydrogen is simply Exxon and friends trying to find a way to tie you to their inefficient paradigm. Hydrogen is for losers, and the way a hydrogen car loses a tank of fuel (nearly overnight) makes that insult doubly apt.

Answer 3

It means that the billions of barrels of oil a day has reached its peak, it may not last much longer, We will be drilling less and less until its worth the price of gold and only the rich could afford it, Read this, http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/oilcrisis.html
Get some solar panels installed and harvest your rainwater. This maybe the future for us all, unless the super powers fight for the remaining oil fields and kill the rest of us.

Answer 4

PEAK OIL , IS OIL USED BETWEEN 8 AM AND 6 PM

Answer 5

Lubricant for the top of a mountain.

Answer 6

Sounds like something made by KY and can probably be purchased in most pharmacies.
Sorry, I can't ALWAYS be serious :-)