The relentless — and ever accelerating — rise in energy demand of oil extraction threatens to upend centuries of economic growth; with or without wind, solar and nuclear. Together with a decline in conventional oil production it will eventually cap off the net energy returned to the economy, making any further expansion to our material world impossible. In fact, there is a good case to be made that we have already passed this point, and that the economic pains we endure at the moment are just a quiet prelude to the massive crash to come as a result.
You hit a lot of nails on the head here, realities most people are completely unaware of. Good job. Speaking of Alberta tar sand oil, just wait until there's no diesel for firetrucks.
If we discovered a free unlimited clean energy source... that would invite total disaster upon the world.... it would mean we would deplete all other resources rapidly .. and we'd quickly pave over the entire planet.
Another great piece, B. Your writing has been essential to my recent evolution from merely climate aware to near-term-collapse-aware.
Side note: as I stood in the grocery store checkout yesterday, I was confronted with the latest Harvard Business Review. The featured article is, "Why It's So Hard to Keep Growing." Something tells me the article doesn't mention the real reason.
You provided no evidence that actual oil production is set to decline or even stagnate. Higher prices mean more fracking and unconventional oil, nothing more. The limiting factor we SHOULD be worried about is catastrophic warming; it will kill the economy and all of us long before oil starts to meaningfully run out.
Canadian tar sands extraction and extraction of similar extra-heavy "oil" from Venezuela depends on a large supply of gas nearby to generate steam to soften that glop. It has to be diluted with lighter hydrocarbons from extra-light oil or lease condensate (the volatile liquids which condense out of natural gas as it's compressed) to allow it to flow through pipelines and in/out of tankers or rail cars. It also requires considerably more energy to refine. I call that an energy subsidy.
Side note: Every few years, someone suggests building nuclear reactors in the tar sands to generate steam so the gas currently used for that can be sold elsewhere. The problem is that transporting heat directly wouldn't be very practical, given the distances involved, and electric heat would utilize the nuclear energy less efficiently. But even if small modular reactors were used, built off-site and moved periodically as required, I'd be surprised to find the energy payback worth the investment. And then there are the issues of maintaining them at remote locations and keeping a skilled workforce in place 24/7/365. And then the wildfires...
E nice if the powers that be would allow us to get energy from other resources like this from Twitter: Zimbabwean inventor, Maxwell Chikumbutso developed a technology which converts RADIO FREQUENCY to energy, but his patents were declined, because “they defy the laws of physics”👇.svg
You hit a lot of nails on the head here, realities most people are completely unaware of. Good job. Speaking of Alberta tar sand oil, just wait until there's no diesel for firetrucks.
I can understand the depop agenda now.
A tour de force in the relation of peak oil facts. Congratulations sir.
Thank you B🙏
I like Art Berman's take on how an AI with super high energy intelligence will help us: "The AI will tell us to use less oil".
I'd add, it will also tell us to get our population down to reduce the coming suffering.
If we discovered a free unlimited clean energy source... that would invite total disaster upon the world.... it would mean we would deplete all other resources rapidly .. and we'd quickly pave over the entire planet.
Thank you. Good article!
Great piece, as always. I think the very last sentence is of particular importance:
"Instead, finding one’s way back ashore could’ve proven to be a much better plan…"
In the end, the best option we have is some sort of new 'Back to the Land' movement.
Another great piece, B. Your writing has been essential to my recent evolution from merely climate aware to near-term-collapse-aware.
Side note: as I stood in the grocery store checkout yesterday, I was confronted with the latest Harvard Business Review. The featured article is, "Why It's So Hard to Keep Growing." Something tells me the article doesn't mention the real reason.
"I need a fix, 'cause I'm goin' down, down to the bits that I left uptown..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdvnOH060Qg
50 to 70% of diesel can be replaced by (abundant) natural gas via Eden Innovations OptiBlend duel-fuel kit, retrofitted onto existing diesel engines.
https://optiblendfuels.com/how-it-works/
You provided no evidence that actual oil production is set to decline or even stagnate. Higher prices mean more fracking and unconventional oil, nothing more. The limiting factor we SHOULD be worried about is catastrophic warming; it will kill the economy and all of us long before oil starts to meaningfully run out.
Canadian tar sands extraction and extraction of similar extra-heavy "oil" from Venezuela depends on a large supply of gas nearby to generate steam to soften that glop. It has to be diluted with lighter hydrocarbons from extra-light oil or lease condensate (the volatile liquids which condense out of natural gas as it's compressed) to allow it to flow through pipelines and in/out of tankers or rail cars. It also requires considerably more energy to refine. I call that an energy subsidy.
Side note: Every few years, someone suggests building nuclear reactors in the tar sands to generate steam so the gas currently used for that can be sold elsewhere. The problem is that transporting heat directly wouldn't be very practical, given the distances involved, and electric heat would utilize the nuclear energy less efficiently. But even if small modular reactors were used, built off-site and moved periodically as required, I'd be surprised to find the energy payback worth the investment. And then there are the issues of maintaining them at remote locations and keeping a skilled workforce in place 24/7/365. And then the wildfires...
E nice if the powers that be would allow us to get energy from other resources like this from Twitter: Zimbabwean inventor, Maxwell Chikumbutso developed a technology which converts RADIO FREQUENCY to energy, but his patents were declined, because “they defy the laws of physics”👇.svg