A long time has passed since my last blog post, and this new year, I want to start this blog, wishing a prosperous, full of happiness and health, and, of course, and hoping that, this year, you could start a sustainable way to live.
Happy New Year 2010!!
Well, let's start. I have new friend, a great person who's trying to spread the sustainable word, everywhere, and this year, we will start a movement, a world wide ideology, teaching people: why, how and when they can start a sustainable life style.
What issues are the most critical in Sustainable Development?
Well, we are going to take one each time, and how to solved it, today will be ENERGY.
Since the end of the First World War, oil has been flowing into almost every aspect of our daily lives: as fuel, as basis for chemicals, as plastic, fabrics, etc. In fact, it is hard to think of a product that does NOT contain a large portion of oil or oil energy.
Petroleum is a compact and effective source of energy. Unfortunately, there's no known source of energy that is so convenient, compact and easy to transport, that can power the millions of vehicles and machines all over the world.
And the same misfortune fact is, oil is just not being found any more in large quantities. And we are using more than is being found, and of course produced (Earth needs million years to produce pretoleum)
The long exit was first announced in 1956 by petroleum geologist M. King Hubbert. He calculated the US production would peak in 1970 and the
world around 2000.
The Long exit started in 1968 when world oil discoveries peaked. Since then, year on year, less oil has been discovered, and the production wells have reduced its capacity.
There have been no significant discoveries of new oil since 2002. In 2001 there were 8 large scale discoveries, and in 2002 there were 3 such discoveries. In 2003 there were no large scale discoveries of oil. For every year since the mid 1980s, annual production has been greater than annual discoveries.
Since 2005, there has been no real increase in world oil production, remaining at around 85 million barrels per day. But it gets worse. The oil remaining in the ground is harder to get out. The easy stuff was extracted long ago. At the beginning of the oil age the equivalent of one barrel of oil invested would bring you 100. Nowadays, depending on the oil field, it is between one and 18 you get back.
Many argue I'm overstating the case. But many, most even, are heavily
invested in Business as usual and would be hit negatively if people started to change their ways. So it goes on. Not really talking about the thing that is going to change the way you live.
There is still little talk of the need for change. If we wait, circumstances may
develop so we all go through a slow change, and we can hold onto Business as
Usual as long as possible. This is unlikely for many reasons. If we choose NOT to act in time, the pressure to change as world energy supplies diminish could trigger humanitarian catastrophes.
Take what happened in CUBA as an example. When Cuba lost most of their oil
supplies as the Soviet Union collapsed, the farming system broke down and
starvation was widespread. (even with the new oil discoveries)
What we need to be awared of?
- Where am I or my business vulnerable?
- To what extent is my business or my daily life reliant on uninterrupted supplies of oil based products?
- What alternatives are available now?
- What services do I rely on that might be increasing in price soon?
Cheap and readily available oil is the engine of economic growth. Without radical changes in the way we do things, the age of economic gowth is over for ever. A lot of people will be changing their ideas about what they aspire to get out of life.
Continue...
