Peak Oil: 150 Million Americans dead by 2020?

[pvande55]

Who knows when oil will peak? But what is a mystery is why natural gas is the moral equivalent of a third the price of oil. True, the cost of converting your vehicle to natural gas is high, and there is a lack of refueling stations, but one would expect a lot of conversions at this point. Electric cars, variously described as our saviour and a tool of the devil, may also be a wildcard. If an affordable battery is developed that can go 200 miles and be charged in five minutes, it could be "game over" for gasoline. Will long-coveted mass transit lines get funded if gasoline gets too expensive? Not necessarily, it is usually traffic congestion that moves them forward.

[Chango]

Originally Posted by bchris02

Does anybody have any reputable information refuting the peak oil theory? Everything I am reading shows that its worse than we thought, and the end of civilization is upon us.

Stop reading the crazy stuff then...


We are probably past the peak already; I don't believe world oil production has ever cleared the '08 numbers.

From here out, oil will just get more expensive, though it won't just run out one day. Expect to simply be squeezed for years... maybe decades until eventually it just won't make sense to drive that often.

Petroleum is used in a myriad of products, but there are other sources and substitutes. Perhaps we'll get lucky and find a suitable replacement for gas powered engines, but it doesn't seem likely in the near future.

Note, this doesn't mean the end of the world, just a change in the world. This planet tends to do that from time to time...