A Peek At The Peak Oil Catastrophe

Talk about being conflicted.

If "peak oil" happens in 2014, as some scholars at Kuwait University, and other scientists around the world agree, will environmentalists cease to advocate for environmental concerns?

Is a safer world ahead because oil is going to run out, and thus bring about a better environment because the main poison is subsiding?

Is cap and trade a useless endeavor now, because oil will not be used as a primary source of energy in the next generation?

Some of these questions, together with other scuttlebutt, have been sparked anew by a study done in Kuwait:

The Kuwaiti study created its world model for peak oil based on 47 individual models for each major oil-producing nation. It also took a separate look at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which includes nations that control about 35 percent of the world's oil reserves.

More complications may still change the ultimate end date for peak oil. OPEC's latest projection suggests that world oil demand will grow by 900,000 barrels per day in 2010, according to an Associated Press story this week. That follows a period of low oil demand during the height of the worldwide recession in 2009.

For now, Kuwaiti scientists say that the world continues to consume its oil reserves at a rate of about 2.1 percent each year. They plan to continue including new data that can refine the model as time goes by.

(Oil Production to Peak in 2014, Live Science). There is a convergence of security threats to all nations by this conundrum of the convergence of global warming and peak oil.

This blog has focused on the security threat to the nations brought about by the spectre of global warming, and on the security threat brought on by the spectre of peak oil.

Some of the concern Dredd Blog raises is due to the reality that we are talking about threats to addicts, who tend to respond with violence when their "stuff" is placed in jeopardy.

Considering that our governments are built from the garbage heap of humanity, if their behavior in the face of these mounting assaults on our ability to survive as a species is any indicator, it is more likely than not that the worst pathway will be selected as "the way to go".

That would mean that governments, as depicted in the movie 2012, will provide for themselves, via some concept of building an ark for them and theirs (underground shelters, secret survival enclaves, etc.), but will leave the people to weather the storm on their own.

This is especially true of MOMCOM, already well versed in not caring about the populace.

The next post in this series is here.