Peak Oil and Love

I was recently reading an article in the Guardian (the very excellent UK newspaper). It was written by an author who has just recently compiled an anthology of love stories. There is a line from it that has stuck with me. Here it is:

Say what you want about love; death will finish it. You will not go on loving in the grave, not in any physical way that will at at all resemble love as we know it on earth. The perishable nature of love is what gives love its profound importance in our lives. If it were endless, if it were on tap, love wouldn't hit us the way it does.

This quotation stuck with me for one main reason: it pretty much describes our relationship with oil. For years, we have pretended that it was always on tap and now the evidence shows that we have or soon will pass the peak of production. This means that there will still be oil available, but it will be extremely difficult to get out of the ground, both physically and monetarily. According to a report published by CitiBank just last week, "total global liquid hydrocarbon production has essentially flatlined since mid 2005 at just north of 85 million barrels per day." This report was quoted in a recent article by George Monbiot, who is an excellent UK writer on environmental and other issues (see monbiot.com - he cites all information which isn't his - very remarkable for a website). Recently, there was also an email sent out by the CEO of Shell to his employees saying that by "2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand." This gives us 7 years to come up with some kind of alternative to oil. Of course, it could be much sooner because of Chinese and Indian demand. According to China Daily, "Chinese and Indian demand will grow 970,000 barrels per day (bpd) this year -- nearly 40 per cent of total world growth. China accounts for the lion's share, with 840,000 bpd of incremental demand. " Many people say that the developing world has to chart a greener course than we did, but what gives us the right to say that?

People may think that 7 years is a long time, but shocks will still come before then. At the moment, inflation and food prices are going up, partly because of high oil prices. They could continue to rise if land is set aside for the production of crops for biofuels. Take action now while you can - sell your car, get a bike, move closer to work, buy organic as often as you can (fertilisers are mainly made up of fossil fuels), buy local or even better, don't buy anything you don't need. Speaking of love, who says Valentine's Day requires that you buy roses or expensive chocolate? A nice simple dinner will do.