by cephalotus » Thu 02 Sep 2010, 11:31:34
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'D')oesn't that seem overly optimistic? How are we supposed to go along just fine for another 20 years when just the first little bump into global supply limitations in 2008 sent the world economy into a tailspin ----

Maybe it's to simple, but the $140/barrel price in 2008 didn't cause much problems in German economy. the price at gas stations was rising from maybe €1,30/l to €1,50/l which caused some teeth gnashing. but otherwise life just went on.
People here will pay 2€/l or 3€/l if they need to.
Maybe that's the arguement. The German econmomy and German people will survive 200US$/barrel, 300US$/barrel and most likely also 500US$/barrel, so maybe we believe, that peak oil will cause very high prices and that will force other(!) buyers out of the market.
(in reality this is not so easy, German industriy depends on exports and if some people in xyz can't afford to drive a BMW anymore, than it will also affect BMW)
On the other hand, Germany is using less and less oil every year, because oil heat systems are replaced with other systems since some years, cars consume less (and car numbers don't increase) and so on.
you can find the exact data on
http://www.mwv.de (only in German)
If the sky falls, Germany could reduce oil consumption in my estimation by 50% from here to tomorrow, if they stop heating with oil imidiately (use electricity), if they reduce diesel and gasoline consumption by 30-40% (use bikes, public transport and car pooling), reduce air travel by 70-80% and leave everything else (public services, industry consumption, etc...) at 100%.
I doubt that even a 50% reduction would cause much chaos.
Here is an interesting report about the future of Germanys oil usage by the oil lobby(!) itself.
It's in German, but you can see, that even the oil lobby(!), which naturaly isn't a peak oil supporter, expects shrinking usage of oil in the coming years:
http://www.mwv.de/cms/upload/pdf/statis ... ognose.pdfMaybe the availability of (expensive) oil imports is shrinking faster to zero than expected, but this is hard to predict. I assume that there will still be oil exports by 2030, most likely more expensive than today.
best regards