what do U think will happen to civilization when peak oil comes to pass?

Answer 1

It will be devastating to economies world-wide. People are complaining of high gas prices now but that is only the very beginning. Our whole system of distribution of resources (food, clothes, building supplies, etc) will be compromised. People need to realize that we are dependent on oil not just for making our cars move, but for virtually everything that we use today.

There is the belief that we will overcome peak oil by using fuel cell technologies or wind/solar power. The reality is that we produce on such a grand scale today that none of these alternatives would be sufficient to maintain our current living standard unchanged.

People's lives will change dramatically. It seems likely that as oil becomes exhorbitantly expensive, many corporations will fail and the American economy will experience massive recession/depression unprecendented in modern times. We are so dependent on oil for our basic necessities of food, shelter, transportation, refrigeration, access to health care (how do you get to the hospital?).

It will be a wake-up call for mankind that we should not become dependent on any source for our well being outside of what's ready at hand. We will have to learn to live more simply and locally. Global markets will not suffice to keep people alive.

Answer 2

When it does come to an end.. there will be something else to replace it... Look at computers it has grown to such a mass. It employees more people then any other profession by far. I think in Ontario (maybe else where) .. i could be wrong they there is already a company that supplies power with those huge solar windmills. They are 100% environmentally safe and generate the same power, since its new it costs approx $15 to $20 dollars more a month.

Everything will change from that natural resource to another like grain, water or some type of flower oil. When one falls another comes in. Car manufactures and Entrepreneurs already have an answer for that. They haven't changed yet.

Answer 3

Well, that depends a bit on who is in power at the time and how quickly gasoline prices are to rise.

If the price surges relatively slowly, chances are good, that the economy slows down, and then changes towards a more localized economy, that requires less energy spent on transport. All in all, it could be a relatively smooth transition, which is likely to make Western society somewhat poorer material wealth and less able to travel, but still maintain all the many assets of our civilization, like free speech and democracy and social services. And eventually we'd probably find some clever substitute for oil. - Developing countries could actually benefit, since their economies are less fuel dependent, and not having to compete in the market with highly fuel intensively grown and subsided crops from Europe and the US might help many farmers out of poverty.

However, if the oil prices surge too quickly, so the economy can't adapt, or some people in power think it is a really good idea to wage wars to secure access to oil-fields, then we are big in trouble.

Answer 4

Odds are we'll just be moving on to either coal or ethanol, and won't change that much at all. Either one of these could become dominant, depending on new advances.

The big changes will occur in the oil states, since most are dictatorships or authoritarian systems. When they don't have piles of cash to fix their problems, they'll fall in a similar way to the way the Soviet Union fell when the price of oil crashed in the 1980s.

Answer 5

I know what will happen. The short-sighted idiots that didn't prepare
themselves beforehand will try to sponge off of the people that did.
They will try to pass laws to require the people that prepared to
support the people that did not prepare, just like the blacks got
their racial quota laws passed. If the fools don't succeed in getting
their laws passed, then they will use direct action. In either case,
the wise must be prepared to defend themselves from the parasites.

Answer 6

It is interesting that they asked the same question in the 1800s. Since then, the known reserves have grown. Once it becomes not economical, we will move to other sources of energy. It will last for hundreds of years so I am confident our technology will adjust by that time. The main reasons keeping us from having adequate supplies are political not technical. Don't buy into the scare tactics. If you educate yourself, you will find that there have always been the skeptical chicken littles saying we are headed for a crisis.

Answer 7

Then a 'Manhattan Project' type of research for alternate fuel will be organized by the Government to perfect batteries, solar power, biofuels, biofuel engines, chemical & nuclear power stations, and 'Tokomat' thermonuclear plasma reactors, will all be more fully developed.

Just like in WWII when all individual families where encouraged to become more self-sufficient with 'victory gardens' then future families will have their own wind & solar generators and battery/solar cars.

Answer 8

I think that people will panic and everything will become more expensive. After a few years people will adjust and we will do what we are best at...we will adapt and find other ways to live without oil.

Answer 9

they already have a lot of alternatives for things that seem to be "necessities". since most things are really about money, after oil is out, something else has already been designed to replace it. they just wont "discover" it until they need to. just like most other things.

Answer 10

Not much. It already happened in 2006.