Packing for the crash

[glenatron]

For the past few years global oil production has been stuck at around 73 to 74 million barrels of oil per day. Currently global demand is at around 88 million barrels per day. That, ladies and gentlemen, is Peak Oil right there.

Hold tight, it's going to be a heck of a drop.

Comments

[silks-ic.livejournal.com]

It'll be fine - whilst we are producing less oil than needed it's not anywhere near the amount that could be produced if Opec wanted to
Unless Israel attacks Iran
Then things are going to get very very very bad

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Yes, because everyone knows how much Opec have in reserve, because they tell us. And they've been telling us that there has been no change in their reserves for the last 20 years or so and nobody independant has been able to take a look at those fields in that time so we only have their word for it.

Entertaining open letter to the Saudi king (http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/05/27/majesty-we-have-gone-mad/) from George Monbiot on precisely this...

The problem isn't the amount produced, it's the gap between supply and demand. Demand will not decrease any time soon and right now there is no evidence to suggest that supply can increase.

[penella22.livejournal.com]

yup, exactly. Which is why fiance and I are looking at scooters. 90-100miles a gallon sounds good. Doesn't fix things, but hopefully its a step in the right direction...

[evil-c.livejournal.com]

Its a good idea. Both my partner and I have have small engined motorbikes for the daily getting around so we only use our car when we have to. My motorbike costs me £8 to do about 130 miles whereas our car costs about £30 to do the same distance.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I like the fuel economy but I don't like the idea of spending each journey feeling like I could die at any moment. It's a tough one to balance.

People I know with motorbikes do seem to really enjoy them, though.

[penella22.livejournal.com]

the scooter we're looking at tops out at 30 mph, which is what in kms? 75km? I think roughly...certainly not taking your life in your hands if you choose your route carefully and don't go in faster traffic. we live in an urban enough place that its feasible to do that.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

Round here the roads were designed for horses and carts and they tend to be narrow and windy, now they are mostly used by BMWs which tend to go shockingly fast. The thing about being limited to 30mph or thereabouts is that it's not ever so much faster than cycling, which I feel a bit safer doing and has all the associated benefits.

Both much better than driving, mind.

[penella22.livejournal.com]

you feel safer cycling??? Oh...maybe you can do that *not* in the road...

In my city, all the bikers are either (minority category) motivated by eco-consciousness, have helmets, safety lights, signal with their hands etc. OR they're the poor people who bike recklessly through traffic, no helmets, no signaling, and I am constantly in danger of hitting them. My only ray of hope is that maybe they are taking themselves out of the gene pool before they reproduce.

Yes, that was mean. Sorry. But URGH.

Anyways, all cycling citizens are in the road with traffic, at busy traffic jammy times of day, and THEN all the cars try to go round the bicyclist and you get a real mess. If you can cycle off-road, by all means, stick to that! Here, it is a bit safer to have a scooter because then you can go with the flow of traffic and the cars don't try to go round you quite so much.

[glenatron.livejournal.com]

I can do that not on the road, but as a cyclist I'm not quite so much part of the normal flow of traffic, so I'm something cars have to go round. It seems like motorcycles are easy to ignore- people seem to just not see them at all and if you do have someone pull out in front of you on a motorbike you're probably going faster and so you're more likely to hurt yourself.