<<<There are always doom and gloomers out there.>>>
Unfortunately, the arguments I've seen on the topic are too lame to be considered gloom and doom. It's intentional disinformation. Scare tactics would be a better description. As close as I can tell from various articles I've seen, current proven reserves are likely to last 150 years assuming no new major discoveries on a planet that is largely unexplored in terms of surface area. That's also assuming no technological breakthroughs in exploration or drilling techniques.
50 years ago a computer was the size of a high school gym and had less computing power than a $15 calculator today. As individuals, humans are a bit on the dull side, as a race, they're fairly clever when it comes to figuring out how to do things. The scary part is in today's world, anyone who came up with a major breakthrough in energy production would have a life expectancy of about 10 minutes.
There are already plenty of somewhat clunky alternatives to using oil as an energy source. If you live in a area that's fairly sunny, you can install solar panels and actually produce more energy than you consume, then use the energy you produce to recharge your electric car. Your roof will look different than your neighbors, and you'll have to use a bit of foresight in planning where you're going and when to charge the car, but the products are on the market today if you choose to go that route.
It's not that there aren't any feasible alternatives to oil at the consumer level, it's that the oil companies have to be able to produce oil at a cost which prevents a mass exodus of consumers using their product. At the same time, someone like Saddam Hussein selling nickel a liter regular, through state run facilities, made him the most dangerous man on the planet as far as the oil companies are concerned.
A lot of people had to die for the simple reason US and British oil companies couldn't compete at prices where Iraqi production was still profitable. |
