What happens when the oil runs out?

[waqasahmed]

I suppose if you've read/watched the news about the up coming oil crunch that we should be expecting soon-Expect everything to go up in price as we dont produce anything here any more and our only real two industries left are the
banking industry(which has failed) and the
IT industry(which is still here fortunately)

Anyway, its basically the law now I think for someone to speculate on what happens when the oil runs out, when there's mass chaos as there is now(with the recession, its very bad)

Its all fair and good saying we will turn to renewables in the future, however renewables need fossil fuels to make them in the first place. We will definitely lose our cheap plastic as we will have to make plastics from "bio plastics" and we will go backwards in terms of economics to post war period where people wasted less and re used containers etc...-Kenco has already started bringing this back

Iran has rationed its oil supplies. Yemen has less than 10 years left and it's economy is dwindling. What keeps Saudi Arabia and the UAE running is the large amount of exports and the fact that they're actually building for the future unlike Yemen.

Also, a lot of people do say the next greatest powers will be China, India etc... however both these countries require oil as do we. If there is less oil, it means less products, which means higher prices for us, which means less exports for India and China. Its a vicious circle. We WILL go in to a global depression soon, if something is not done quickly(Im talking about 20 years)

Its been reported that we'll run out of oil in 40 years, and gas in 60 years, if we continue to use them at the current rate. Growth of dependence on oil will probably mean that we will run out in 25 years. We will then go in to a depression, to come out and use gas(whats left of it) only to run out a whole five years later. Thats my theory anyway

Its also interesting why the US is pushing for greener, efficient products. eg: my netbook consumes 4-8W of power, whilst my PC(with a monitor) uses 90W of power. If I bought my netbook purely to save money on electricity costs, in five years, the netbook would have paid for itself(£280)

Developed governments are going to need to produce alternative, efficient devices(not that hard for the IT industry)-but it is for the car industry

Any way, thats my 5 pennies worth(inflation)

[waqasahmed]

Oh, and theres also the "peak oil" theory, where we'll continue to produce more and more oil(though slowly), until it peaks, then we will produce less, and continue to dwindle supplies at a faster rate, until all reserves have finished. It does seem quite viable

[brian]

I remember reading a news editorial from just before the year 1990, predicting oil and coal would run out within a couple of decades.

I also remember being told in the 1980's that oil and coal were about to run out...

Peak Oil seems to be an organisation that has been surprisingly active but little reported, which aims to connect local suppliers with local distributors. I'm impressed Branson and others are associated with it though, as it means it has far more heavyweight support than I realised.

Either way, Peak Oil remains a pertinent issue, but one we're likely to address - something we'll gradually move into, rather than sudden panic, etc, I think.

[waqasahmed]

Brian, I have heard about the press reporting that before, but I believe we truly are running out now. Only now are we pushing for alternatives and we werent in the 80's. Only now, we are pushing for greener products. The Arab states have also started switching to solar etc... as they know oil will run out soon.

The trouble we have is that the press has told a "boy who cried wolf" story over and over again, all for commercial reasons. People have gradually started to think they're lying, but I do believe this time the press has got it right, especially as top shareholders are pulling their money out of oil and in to renewables, we are pushing for more rail lines as fuel prices rocket. We can power our trains on electricity, we can not power our cars on electricity and reach a good speed.

Only now have the car industry(been forced to by gov't legistlation) listened

[waqasahmed]

Theres a 60 minute clip(in 6 parts of 10 minutes each) on youtube, if you search for "if the oil runs out" As one person puts it

Originally Posted by transhuman7

This is the scariest horror movie I've seen.

We need the alternatives in use today, as we wont be able to do much in the future(well theres nuclear power) One thing for sure is that cost of living will rise quite a fair bit