Runnin’ on Empty December

Got oil?

In December our thoughts turn quite naturally to long evenings spent celebrating the holidays with good friends, good food, a warm fire and twinkling lights. As this year runs out of gas, we may feel the need for such safe, secure and homey tableaus to escape from a world that appears increasingly Dali-esque. But, before you launch yourself head-over-heels into a Polar Expression of disbelief at our nation’s collective lunacy, believe this: There is something important you can do, something that will make a difference.

Got oil? Sure, you do! Oil—or the energy produced from it—is everywhere in our hectic culture. Name three things you’ve done or used today that required no transportation, manufacture, or power. Time’s up. Yup, it’s hard to imagine all the ramifications if suddenly tomorrow there were no more oil—like “cold turkey” to addiction.

Got Peak Oil? Peak who? Sure, you do; you just don’t know it yet. Let me introduce Dr. M. King Hubbert, a geophysicist who predicted in 1956 that US oil extraction would peak between 1966 and 1972. It did. The result? U.S. dependence on imported oil. (Are you old enough to remember the gas lines in the early 70s?) Other scientists began studying Dr. Hubbert’s work to create models for global oil peak.

Guess what? It’s heeeere. New estimates say global oil supply will peak between 2011 and 2005. Yeah, that’s next year. What’s “peak” mean? There’ll still be lots of oil, right? Peak means we’ve used half the earth’s oil: What remains equals what we’ve already used. Seems pretty harmless.

Does the name, “Iraq” ring a bell?

We began our increasing dependence on oil’s energy only 150 years ago. In the last 50 years alone, consumption increased tenfold. In the past 5 years China and India have become major consumers, with China’s demand increasing 20% annually. Although oil companies continue to develop better extraction technologies and geophysicists search for potential untapped deposits, results from both efforts are leveling off while global demand increases exponentially.

To put it another way, we’re driving a stick uphill in Astoria and the gas gauge is crowding Empty.

Or, let’s say you’ve just ordered a soft drink and it arrives in a glass with ice and a straw. Imagine your first sip through that straw. The soft drink flows easily, tastes good, quenches your thirst. Now, fast forward to that moment when there’s just a tad of soft drink left, mixed with ice water in the bottom of the glass underneath the remaining cubes. It’s harder to get it out through the straw, and what you manage to extract tastes watered-down, less than satisfying. You’ve reached the point when it’s time to give up and push the glass aside, even though you can still see evidence of the soft drink’s color swirled in the water at the bottom of the glass. There’s still some there, but it’s not worth the effort. While our metaphor is less precise geologically than conceptually, that’s when they close off an oil well.

Now, rewind this little scenario to the point when you’ve still got half the soda in the glass. Voila! Welcome to Peak Oil. What we have to look forward to now is the bottom of the glass. I always hated that stuff at the bottom of the glass and would rather chew on an ice cube. But, how does that help us with Peak Oil? Where do we find our “ice cube”? Do we quit driving and take the bus or what?

Our food, clothing and shelter are oil-dependent. We don’t grow all our own food, nor get our own clothes from a local seamstress who weaves the cloth by hand. Pesticides, fertilizers, cultivating, harvesting, packaging, transporting, displaying, and purchasing food all heavily involve oil. Fabrics, dyes, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, displaying and purchasing clothing…. It’s mindboggling.

Enough depressing information! Can’t we talk about the holidays again? Sure.

Okay, okay, what can we do about Peak Oil?

That’s the spirit! The following twelve steps will help you break your addiction to oil. Just kidding. There’s an old song, “Got along without ya before I met ya. Gonna get along without ya now.” We’ll get along by finding ways to cut down and shifting to renewables, e.g. we can buy our holiday gifts from local craftspeople or make them ourselves from renewable materials. Plastic products, made across the globe and sold in box stores are oil-intensive gifts. Rule #1: Buy local.

We’ll discuss more we can do right here each month in Hipfish. Meanwhile, there are books and websites. (Go to Google and type in “peak oil”.) You can write me at Hipfish and I’ll try to help you find information. It’s one step at a time, folks. But, do take that first step. You’re not alone. We’re in this one together, for sure. And, happy holidays! It’s a good time to prove that candlelight can be more fun than electric light. Just buy the candles locally, from someone who keeps bees. One step at a time.

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REFERENCES:

Association for the Study of Peak Oil, www.peakoil.net

Berg, Jeff, "Peak Oil - A Seismic Shift" www.countercurrents.org/peakoil-berg091104.htm

Heinberg, Richard, Power Down, New Society, Gabriola Island, BC 2004

The Party's Over, ibid, 2003

Oil Awareness Group, www.eclipsenow.org

Post Carbon Institute, The Post Carbon Institute - Learning to Live in a Low Energy World (Peak Oil and Gas, Global Relocalization)

Sanovar, Matthew, Life After the Oil Crisis, ebook matt@lifeaftertheoilcrash.net

Wolf at the Door, www.wolfatthedoor.org.uk

Runnin’ on Empty

Conversations with Caren Black on the View from Oil’s Peak