The Coming Oil Crisis: The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight

[rocketsredglare101]

Unlimited Immigration for an unlimited time is not sustainable. We need to limit legal immigration in numbers and to those that benefit our country, not burden it. Illegal immigration can be stopped easily by making E Verify mandatory and ending Anchor babies and chain migration.

Without current massive immigration our country would have a stable population and higher wages. Google Numbersusa to join their 1 million other members that fax their Senators for free. No cost to join.

[Reikial]

I agree, it would be madness to give up now and say all is lost. It would also be an easy optout.

"Well, guys, whats the point; I might as well carry on overconsuming everything including oil as well as abusing the planet. A big part of the answers lie at confronting our propensity for greed. Our political and business philosophy of continual growth seems insane. It seems obvious that it cannot be sustained and non polititions will need to confront this issue head on - big business wont.

[Israe5l]

fifteen or fifty? (I hope its fifty, but I am thinking its fifteen.)

Well, statistic is killing us. How can one measure a society? We definitively can't measure human individual.

[Weaseldog2001]

It's not like falling, where the sudden stop at the end kills you.

We'll die the death of a thousand cuts, from pre-peak, all the way down.

And it appears that the peak of conventional oil did occur in 2005. Look at the economic damage the end of growth has triggered.

[naisayd]

For somebody that doesn't like to talk to the camera, you do very well:) What a lot of people don't seem to realize is that, as oil reserves are depleted, prices, at least on average will continue to rise. As that happens, the prices of various plastics will also rise, same with food and many other things.

[STOPGLOBALSTUPIDITY]

P.S. Thom Hartman is a propagandist. Most of his so called theories have never proven true. He draws the weak and foolhardy in like Michael Moore. It's called target marketing! Well, I guess he should be able to make a living like everyone. After all this is America.

[STOPGLOBALSTUPIDITY]

You are completely wrong. There's over 200 years of shale oil just in Utah. Alaska, Arctic circle, Gulf coast and pacific coast contain almost 600 years at 290 million barrels a day. Our consumption today is only 84 million barrels. If you add in Mexico and Canada we can produce 400 million barrels a day for the next 1000 years. Are you making this up or just out and out lying? Get a clue.

[2bsirius]

Shale is a VERY DIRTY ENERGY FORM...But some people just don't give a damn....You get a clue!

[STOPGLOBALSTUPIDITY]

What? Our air and water is getting less polluted every day Vs the 50's -80's. I thought this was about The Coming Oil Crisis. I don't know people who don't give a damn but apparently you do. But we all fall under the same EPA regulations. My Toyota truck emits 0 hydrocarbons as does most cars on the road. Most of the oil imported to the US come from shale and sand oil out of Canada. Are you saying the Canadians don't care? Growing corn is far more destructive to the environment.

[2bsirius]

You and I will never see eye to eye on this. What are you talking about? To be honest, it seems mostly likely that we will never agree, so I am reluctantly going to refrain from responding to your comment.

[STOPGLOBALSTUPIDITY]

This is not about seeing eye to eye. It's about the truth! You can't even look the camera in the eye when telling spun tales from a fantasy.

[nyannyan123456]

yeah globalstupidity is not thinking. as of right now the amount of energy required to extract shall oil would make that energy form unrealistic to even consider

[schizophrenic123]

But read Tainter`s "The Collapse of Complex Societies" if you havn`t already first.

[2bsirius]

Yes, I will. I meant to find it when I made this video, and constraints of time interfered. Thanks for the reminder.

[schizophrenic123]

Just start WWIII.

[nietzscheADHD]

GROW HEMP

1 acre = 60 barrels of ethanol

[EntropyHaptens]

No pun.

[2bsirius]

Thanks. I wish it were really mine. It is actually the title of the book by Hartman which was the inspiration for my making the video. But it is a great title, isn't it?

[EntropyHaptens]

Wow, thats a brilliant title!!!

[oregonjayhawk]

I would say we have much more than 50 years of oil left. I think you're right though the days of CHEAP oil are very much numbered.

Supply and demand takes no prisoners-- and when the price gets too high-- behavioral patterns will change.

If you think gas is expensive now-- we all just wait. Great post. :) tj

P.S. Thom Hartmann does a national radio show-- and one locally here in Portland, Oregon on KPOJ-AM

[2bsirius]

Sorry I didn't know where Thom Hartmann was. I live in the United Kingdom. Yes, I think you're definately right about the cheap oil being a thing of the past. It is very expensive to extract oil after a certain point of depletion.

[camefromthecorn]

Thanks for video I enjoyed it. It is good that you have hope but to what end, we need this lesson to become aware that we are totally linked with nature.

[2bsirius]

Yes, I agree. I think that too many things conspire to make that realization difficult.

[lirpa69]

Great video. Thanks for the book recommendation. I don't know what I'd do without my gas guzzling minivan. =D

I too have a problem finding my voice making videos. I'm not a presenter. I communicate better through the written medium as well.

I enjoy hearing you speak!

[2bsirius]

Yes, I thought it would be impossible to do without a car...But, although I have one, I don't drive it no more than once every three weeks...Because I live in the UK, it is easier for me...I know what you mean about how difficult it is to sit and do this. It gets easier...But not much easier...Jump in...You won't drown...Promise!

[NLoog]

who needs oil?

[roodala]

BrightHelmVellas is right we have to go backwards a few steps before we can go forward again. How to get the people to listen? I fear this will not happen til its too late and we face the crisis, such as really expensive gas or no gas. When oil gets that expensive its going to get ugly. Move to the mountains now!

[FunkyJogaBonito]

I share your dislike of defeatism, but I wonder how we can persuade the vast numbers that either actively attempt to deny, or simply do not care?

We are moving in to an era that promises great benefit, but there are some really terrifying dangers, also. If we don't solve the looming problems - energy, water, food, poverty, etc - and as the world population becomes wealthier and more numerous, there are going to be wars, and possibly much worse.

The video was wonderful, by the way. ;-)

[nicolatwo]

Era of great benefit? What do you mean?

[FunkyJogaBonito]

Genetics and biotechnology promise unimaginable health benefits.

The quantum revolution (nanotechnology and medical nanorobots) promises mind-boggling applications such as the ability to re-arrange molecules in your own home, creating almost anything. Also, microscopic robots for medical purposes.

Various types of fusion could provide unlimited energy (similar to what happens in the sun), with little or no waste.

This is emerging research and there are also great dangers, of course.

[2bsirius]

I agree that apathy is the worst thing that can happen to us, individually and as a species. We need to think enough about this so that we have some control over what is happening...And the natural inclination is to ignore it and hope it will go away.

[tampasdream]

wow great sites and an equally great video..thank you

[2bsirius]

Thanks for the compliment. I have to be desperately concerned about something to open my mouth, so I guess it's fairly obvious how serious I thing this is. Thanks!

[BrightHelmVellas]

One of the things that worries me is the correlation between oil consumption and population, which on face value would indicate we are really screwed. The oil economy we have now, however, is extremely wasteful. The waste and unnecisary consumption is the problem, and the solution to that is one of consciousness.

[tampasdream]

i see you get my point here ??

[2bsirius]

YES! That's what I think too. It is difficult to talk about the solution being about consciousness...If we could change our minds, we could change the world. Great comment~!!!!

[BrightHelmVellas]

One obvious wasteful thing is the way we produce our food. Much of our land (especially in the UK) is used either for pasture or for growing fodder for livestock. The production methods are intensive (not to mention cruel) but very inefficient at actually feeding people.

[BrightHelmVellas]

This inefficiency is subsidised by government so people can have an abundance of cheap meat. So I don't think food should be a major problem, but people are going to have to sacrifice certain things (like cheap meat and perishable foods imported from long distances) and more people are going to have to work the land as we move back towards a more labour-intensive agriculture.

[BrightHelmVellas]

This prospect seems to fill many modern urban people with a slight horror - the idea of scratching the earth for sustainence, but then again alot of people are already taking up allotment gardening as a hobby.

[HoldinCoffee]

Haven't read the book, but the oceans hold an inexhaustible charge of solar energy, they are gigantic solar collectors. There is enough latent energy in the oceans to supply the entire world demand for 25,000 years... AND ITS RENEWABLE!

[2bsirius]

Who is doing work on this? Do you have some sources we could take a look at?

[HoldinCoffee]

Check out Marshall T. Savage... He's the founder of the Millenial Project which is trying to form a nonprofit group to explore the realities of that concept and hopefully put it into practice. I'll warn you that the idea of harvesting the power of the sun and the seas plays into a MUCH LARGER goal.. perhaps the most expansive plan I've ever heard of.

[HoldinCoffee]

I misspelled "Millennial".. Actually I didn't misspell it, I just typed too quickly. Umm, yeah.

[silverfoxcondor46]

It's depressing to think that all we can do is sit and observe the slow demise of civilization.

Al Gore has made an effort to bring this topic to the people with no significant impact that is yet visible.

We all should be creating awareness.

Thanks for your efforts. (Now subscribed!)

[randyhelzerman]

We're watching :) One of the best pieces of evidence for me that the oil shortage is real is that, here in Silicon Valley, the venture capitalists are starting to write the big checks to alternative energy startups. No, its not too late, we'll muddle through, but if you are old enough to remember the oil shock of the late 70's---that might have been Grendle, but we're about to meat Grendle's mother :-)

[8rf]

I have read that book on my native language. That is the best book to read about the question of oil... at least, it is the best to start with. Thom Hartmann is the king in that book, yes, he heave a radio show....