End of the world game (compilation)
Undisciplined speculation on what the end of cheap oil will mean.
Part of my idea is that peak oil doesn't scare people because no one focuses on what they will shortly be missing.
Feel free to add & comment !
[1] AIRLINES will be the first to go. They were hard hit in the 1970s by oil prices, and now they'll be entering a worse crisis already near bankruptcy. Soon only the very rich and the miltary will fly.
[2] Airlines will take with them many hotels, Disneyland, and most of Airbus and Boeing.
[3] TELECONFERENCING WILL GROW. The Internet too.
[4] STEAM CARS will return! They were great. Really, really fast, mechanically simple (no need for a transmission, not even for reverse!) and they run on anything that will boil water. (they disappeared partly because they took awhile to start, and because as cars replaces horses there were water troughs, and water was needed every 100 miles).
[5] Everyone is a vegetarian. With oil and natural gas (fertilizer and natural gas) an acre can produce 130 bushels; without it only about 30 bushels. That means no excess grain to feed cattle. (Sure, there'll be some scrawny cattle surviving on marginal grasslands, but not a lot).
[6] FEWER DOGS, FEWER CATS, since our pals are meat eaters and their won't be much of that around. But dogs and cats may find some utility *as* meat messybeast.com
[7] WOOD STOVES RETURN! We can't grow wood fast enough to make it a universal replacement for home heating, but it will have its place, especially in the early post-peak days.
[8] COAL IS KING! and while it may itself peak in 35 years, there's a bunch of it, and it can be used as a subtitute for natural gas and for many petroleum products.
[9] Dannon Yogurt will give up plastic containers, go back to those waxed-paper ones with the carboard lids that gave the flavor name. Anybody remember those?
[10] Mechanical watches will become popular (no batteries).
[11] The bicycle business will boom.
[12] The Micheal Jackson trial won't end until at least 2019 because the prosecution will never rest, given Micheal the opportunity to rebut using the entire Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Upon asking Mr. Jackson if he has any statement to make, he will do a special dance; however by this time electricity will no longer be wasted on television. In the end, Mr. Jackson will be convicted, or not, but no one will notice -- by then everyone having bigger concerns on their minds.
- Charles Kramer
tilyou1@yahoo.com |
