The Evansville Courier & Press has an editorial on peak oil, "Peak oil crisis will require fundamental cultural change" that deals with the "will change your lifestyle" part of The Energy Blog's motto. It does not deal with the date of peak oil or the technology, but suggests some changes in lifestyle that will help us get through this period.
A congressional report firmly recommends that we "better prepare for a peak in oil." and "clearly states that there is no U.S. policy to deal with global peak oil." The editorial goes on to state the following regarding these issues.
Oil, for all its dirty, nasty attributes, is the best thing since man discovered fire. ...
Humans have for all practical purposes found, drilled, pumped and refined half of the crude oil on the planet — the easiest half: 900 billion barrels — so far this century. What's left are declining fields with hard-to-extract heavy (sour) crude, oil shale and tar sands. These will require ever more energy to extract and will approach a negative net energy result. ...
Conservation is only a feeble start. For a society to survive intact, philosophies have to change. The car mentality has to go, and the sooner the better.
We have to stop urban sprawl and let the land around our cities be used, as it once was, for growing food for its region; use light rail for distance transportation and trolleys, bikes and pedestrian walkways for local transportation.
We must localize communities around centers of food production and local-needs manufacturing. We must learn to live with less.
All of these would use less energy and could allow a world closer to what we know today to continue for a significantly longer time than would doing nothing.
Technology will not fix this. No amount of high-tech know-how, drilling techniques or "Googling" will save us from ourselves.
In reality, we all will have to learn to live a different life under different conditions. It's not going to be easy or fun.
In reality, we all will have to learn to live a different life under different conditions. It's not going to be easy or fun.
Peak oil will be the issue of our generation. There is not going to be a heroic Hollywood ending or Hail Mary pass to save us on this one. This is an issue that should not be seen as a liberal, tree-hugging, doomsdayer's obsession. This is a global geological fact that needs to be considered in every aspect of our lives.
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