Problems in the Current System are Putting Society Over a (Oil) Barrel
Problems in the Current System are Putting Society Over a (Oil) Barrel
Over the last century, humankind experienced an unprecedented expansion of industrialization.Here's a perspective: Only 100 years have passed since autos have even existed, and electrical power didn't exist in a majority of the country until 50 years ago.
Now consider:
-Industrialization is a global phenomenon so energy resources are being consumed at an unprecedented rate the world over.
- Japan is the world's second largest economy, and China is growing into a tremendous world power, consuming resources faster than any country the world has ever seen.
- U.S. consumption of petroleum has risen steadily since 1950, and promises to continue unabated.
- In 2000, the U.S. consumed 20 million barrels of crude oil per day.That's a lot of crude.
- U.S. net fossil fuel imports fell during the '70s as a result of the OPEC oil embargo, but have risen sharply since the mid 1980's.In 2005, over half of the crude oil consumed in the US was imported, and it's projected that this number will increase to over 65 percent within 20 years.
Over reliance on fossil fuels
All of the expansion and growth has been mainly carried by fossil fuel energy sources, which creates all sorts of chaos. Politically it makes the U.S. indebted to foreign nations.Economically it causes uncertainty in markets, and the result of that is erratic price fluctuations.In order to thrive, economies need consistency. There is no telling what the fossil fuel fluctuations have cost the United States economy in terms of growth potential.
The declining supplies
The domestic supplies of crude oil in the United states have declined over the last fifty years, but our consumption has sky rocketed. After reviewing the following facts, you will see that the US domestic supply will eventually run dry:
- Presently, the United States production of crude is only 1.9 million barrels per day.The current estimate of the United States crude petroleum reserve is only 21.3 billion barrels. But the production rates are currently only about 8% of the reserves a year.At this rate the United States will run completely out of domestic crude oil within twelve years.
- the current estimated natural gas reserves of the united states are 192.5 trillion cubic feet. The use of these reserves is growing at a rate of four times that of new discoveries of this resource. This makes the situation only growing worse over time.The present amount of production is around four percent of the proven reserves anually, suggesting that The United States will run out of domestic supplies within twenty five years.
Even if future generations of extraction and processing equipment exceed expectation; even if offshore drilling platforms are allowed to proliferate around the coastlines; even if ANWR is opened up to drilling; and even if new domestic reserve discoveries exceed the wildest of expectations, the United States will completely run out of domestic supplies for it's most basic form of raw energy.
The United States has two options when facing declining reserves:
- Take over foreign reserves, by force if necessary.This might sound outrageous, but when the U.S. economy begins to grind to a halt, things will get very serious.
- Develop alternative forms of energy
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