Shall we be ready for the petroleum age end?

Question

20 or 30 years yet and the energy needed to extract 1 petroleum gallon will cost more than 1 petroleum gallon. It will be the beginning of the end of the petroleum age. Not too far: the most of us will see that day! Other energy sources are now still completely insufficient to replace petroleum and our technical devices are mostly not ready for conversion. What will it happen to the people living on earth? To global market and production based on the low cost of energy and transports? To the indispensable technological supports to human life? Will it be a sort of apocalypse with wars and massacres for the last petroleum drops? Before the petroleum use only 1 milliard people lived on earth, now we are 6 milliard: what will it happen to the exceeding 5 milliards?

Sorry if the question is poorly worded, but my mother language is not English, anyway I hope the sense will be clear

Answer 1

This is a good question even if it's poorly worded. The population figures in particular....the word these days is "billions" not milliards. But onward!

I'm in agreement here. ^_^ We really *should have* started preparing in earnest for the end of the Petroleum Era back in the 1980s, but we didn't.

And now....we just aren't ready. We aren't ready in terms of resources or emotionally. Even with *high* gasoline prices people refuse to let go of their big honking, gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs.

What really and truly concerns me, though, is that in the United States where I live, *nobody* is looking into serious generation of a biomass supply of diesel fuel. We have the technology to do this, but not the political will, because the *ad industry* has done too good of a job in terms of selling diesel fuel as being "dirty"--and yes, *petro*-diesel fuels are dirty. *Bio* diesel fuels are much cleaner however, and worth the trouble (yes, even the stink that thermogenic processes creates).

And this is a problem, because our Semi-truck fleets are fueled on *diesel* fuel. Our trains run mainly on *diesel* fuel. Many of our ships and barges run on *diesel* fuel. Meaning? A *LOT* of our food supply, materials supply for construction and repairs, mass transit and domestic & continental shipping *depends* implicitly on a clean, uninterrupted supply of diesel fuel.

If we ran out of gasoline (alone) tomorrow, it would be unpleasant, people would have to walk, and there would be anger all around aplenty.

If we ran out of diesel fuel tomorrow, some cities and towns would *starve* inside of two weeks as they *run out of food*. Hospitals would have to shut down for want of medical supplies. Does this not strike you as a "national security" issue on its face?

Ok then. This to me, is *THE* single biggest problem we in the United States could face when the Petroleum Era ends. Or even if the supply is merely *seriously* interrupted. The diesel-fueled supply chains are an *open vein* that is too easily wounded.

Really. Without a *plan* to have some biomass diesel infrastructure in place *today* to use on an emergency basis....we could very well see people starving tomorrow.

I hope this helps....thanks for your time! ^_^