My intent with this blog was originally to discuss the approach of Peak Oil. However, the more I read, the more I think that the peak might have already passed us by.
And as I did research, it became painfully obvious to me that oil permeates our life in more ways than providing gas and diesel. Food production in most of the developed economies is highly dependent on oil. Many other segments of the economy are dependent on petroleum products or inputs to function. As the cheap and easy oil is used up, the cost of almost everything will be forced up.
Now I see the world approaching a point where the demands of very large and growing population, food and clean water primarily, begin to approach the sustainable carrying capacity of the earth. Cheap energy allowed us to ignore this approaching crisis, but as cheap oil runs out, there will be no way to avoid facing this harsh truth.
As population-related demands push us toward resource scarcity, the possible impacts of climate change are more ominous. Sea level rise may be slow enough that it can be planned around. However, changes in rainfall patterns in agricultural regions that significantly affect crop harvests even for a year or two may now push large numbers of people into hunger. Collapse of fish stocks put further pressure on other food sources, and vice versa. The safety margins are beginning to disappear.
The future seems to be rather uncertain at this point. It is like we are sailing into the unknown, those parts of the map that in the old days would be marked “Thar be dragons”.
