4 ms·
Peak Oil is only important when you look at the downstream effect. To me, the real question becomes - who has the oil, who needs the oil and who controls the oi
by whyme 16y ago
Peak Oil is only important when you look at the downstream effect. To me, the real question becomes - who has the oil, who needs the oil and who controls the oil?.
The U.S. has made a habit of equating it's political and economic stability with it's ability to continue pulling in oil at stable prices which, in my opinion, is the reason for many of it's recent wars.
There's is no shortage of oil world wide, but regardless of quantity the price shifts for consumer countries will continue to impact their economy and continue to cause these wars.
It would be nice to see alternative technologies become cheap enough that the US dependency goes away, but then you have another question to ask yourself, what will the countries who currently capitalize on Oil profits do? What will the geopolitical landscape look like then?
- dnautics 16y agoDoesn't peak oil mean that the effects of global warming (as caused by carbon dioxide) are effectively capped?
- arghnoname 16y agoNo, but it helps. Even with zero oil. power production from other fossil fuels adds greenhouse gases to the atmosphere (assuming no attempt at sequestration).
- whyme 16y agoNo, It's the maximum point in global production throughput. From which point, supposedly, our oil reserves will continuously decline and demand will continuously and progressively exceed supply. The hype generated from this is along the lines of the world tanking, political instability, and so on.