Wednesday, May 14, 2014

The Turning Point Of Western Civilization



Now the Beijing Olympics are over I would say that they will go down in history as the peak of western civilization. As China opened up to the western world, western civilization started on its downward death spiral. As historians look back they will probably blame China because as China built itself and the Olympics they helped to use up the last of the cheap oil. 

In 2000 at the Sydney Olympics oil was under $30 a barrel and the price had moved over $30 a barrel for the Athens Olympics say to around $35 for the Olympics. Somewhere between Athens and Beijing we ran out of cheap oil and by the time we got to Beijing oil had nearly taken out the $150 but then it crashed back to under $120 a barrel. We could call this little spike in oil the first oil shock attributed to peak oil. Now we could be on a plateau where oil prices hover around this level before moving up for another leg on the way to peak oil.

Between Sydney and Athens the price of oil went up about 50% but between Athens and Beijing we are looking at a major move. From $35 to $70 is 100% and then from $70 to $140 is another 100% but it came off a bit so we could honestly say the move was under 200% but not much under. So where to now? I don’t know but I think with the world heading into recession oil use will drop or level off. And then when economic activity resumes we will see the price of oil take off again. 

I would say from now on life will progressively get worse as oil gets more expensive. And we will never see another Olympics as grand and spectacular as the Beijing Olympics. The London Olympics was just an ordinary Olympics. China had set the standard and they will be very hard to beat.What a way to end an era.

For more gloomy stories about what we could expect very soon check out.

http://www.animalsdinosaursandbugs.com/Weakest-Link2.htm
Thank you for your time
Peter Legrove
The suburban survivalist

Saturday, May 3, 2014

There seems to be some debate as to whether there will be life after peak oil




It is hard to say. 

If we follow the Cuba model there will be a good life similar to what we have now but we will be using a lot less energy. That would be the ideal model to follow. But looking at history when societies have run out of their energy source they have degraded into war and nearly totally destroyed themselves. Easter island, Anastazi and the Maya all collapsed. 

What will the archeologists of tomorrow say about our society. I would like to think that our society would contract back to something like the 1950’s in my lifetime. Before the car culture where we road bicycles to school and walked a lot more. Factory farming and globalization will be dead and like Cuba, farming and growing food will be very important. We will have a return to family farming and commune living in small eco-villages. 

I hope the internet will survive but I don’t think so. It came into existence as part of the oil economy and when oil goes so will the internet. If we follow the Cuba model there will be more emphasis on schooling and health with everything decentralized to the local level. Everything will be closer either within walking distance or biking distance. And hopefully our society will survive. 

Cities will slowly contract with people moving into the countryside. Large cities are not sustainable without oil so they will contract. I hope our society will survive but it is debatable. Mankind loves war and if the oil wars take over the future we could be doomed with the leftovers of western society living in caves. 

To add a comment check out the Blog then head on over to our Peak Oil Page to find out how to survive the future.

 
For more gloomy stories about what we could expect very soon check out.

http://www.animalsdinosaursandbugs.com/Weakest-Link2.htm
Thank you for your time
Peter Legrove
The suburban survivalist