The Beginnings

I remember back 15/16 years ago (at the time of writing, which would mean I was 14/15 years old) during my science lessons. One of the topics we were dicussing was energy and energy production. We talked about how at the start of the Industrial Age, we used coal, which gave up huge amounts of power compared to just burning wood. From this we learnt to exploit oil/gas and get even more power, and how this drove our modern society (and the rapid population explosion that occured at the same time).

We then, more importantly brought up this one rather important concept. All this oil/gas is FINITE. IT WILL RUN OUT ONE DAY. Hell, I remember being told that it would be in my text books that it would run out in 40 years times (so, make that 25 years from now then, based on that old data).

Strangly enough, as human nature is, I forgot about that nasty little thought for the next 15 years as I carried on my life ‘business as usual’ like the rest of the planet.

Fast Forward to March/April 2005

This was when I became Peak Oil aware. Somehow, I managed to find myself looking at a site called “Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash”. It was a very depressing read, and made me pretty upset for the next month or so. But, really, all it did was remind me of what I learnt in school, and added some more details. So what is this Peak Oil thing?

The Basic Gist of things

In short, Oil/Gas/Coal (Fossil Fuels) are just a storage bank of energy collected from the sun over millions of years. They’ve formed due to very particular geological conditions, which we cannot replicate. We are now taking that energy store and using it up a hell of a lot quicker than it took to create.

So, in short, we have a finite resource that’s going to run out at some stage in the future. However, things start get complicated. Rather than just using the stuff up at a steady rate, and then just running out the next day, extraction of fossil fuels from the earth tends to follow a bell curve shape. At a certain point, extraction will peak and then start to decline. The amount of energy available to use will get less and less each year… even though demand is going up based on our modern lifestyle. Peak Oil is not worrying well the oil will run out, it’s when the extraction peak arrives, and we enter an age of declining energy and that energy costing more and more.

Yes, it’s a depressing topic.
Yes, a lot of people would prefer to remain ignorant and live a happy life.
Yes, life is not going to be as nice as things are now

BUT… we can soften the blow. We can help ourselves first, by making sure we’ll be OK. However, if governments and the people take some real action soon, things will be better.

Beginners Guides

Since I’m no good at explaining all this, I suggest you spend 4 minutes of your time watching this video.

Then, when you’ve got 30 minutes more, try this one.

Then, head over to Wolf at The Door, which has some excellent beginners materials.

What can you do

Well, there are a few things you can do personally.

Get Out of Debt
Grow your own food
Make your home more energy efficient (use Eco-Friendly, low consumption bulbs for example)
Use less water, and thing of ways to reuse it.
Try to walk or use a bicycle when going to shops.
Try to shop locally.
Use a eco-bag (reusable bag) and cut down on on your plastic bag usage.
Think about microgenerating your own power (solar, wind, ground heat).

The point is, even if you cannot do all these things straight away, at least make a start.
Also, I suggest you get reading some of the Peak Oil links I’ve supplied in my links section.