by Ayoob » Wed 08 Jun 2011, 21:26:57
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rockdoc123', 'h')ow about the simple definition which so many people seem to misunderstand?
it is the point at which global production of oil will reach its maximum rate, after which production will gradually decline at an annual rate 6.7%, thus dropping to half in ten short years and essentially zero in forty five.
I believe this is important as it means that economics and technology will have little significant impacts on timing, ultimate value and shape of the peak.
There. I fixed it for you.
And there it is. This is what peak oil boils down to. Find the halving time, multiply that time by 5.5, and that gives you the zero date. If your 6.7% number is correct, the zero date is 55 years. That would be the most optimistic scenario, assuming that no producers sit on their yield, that political instability has no effect on oil production, that none is lost somehow, that we suck out the last drop and sell it for fair market value.
What happens at the first halving time? Well, half the oil consumption that happens today will cease. I'm sure some will continue their lifestyle by virtue of efficiency, others by inherited riches. However, the rest will share the loss of production. I wonder what the curve will look like? Will people walk five or ten miles to a minimum wage job because the cost of fuel will eat their whole paycheck? How much oil goes into the food that fuels that ten mile walk to the minimum wage job?
I've wondered for some time whether we'll go back to having human servants for the upper middle class to do their cooking and cleaning in the home or something like that. You hire somebody to be your personal servant, share living quarters. One works in the public or private sectors, the other picks up the crumbs left behind by that former middle class person as their servant.
What does the second halving time look like? We're down to 25% oil production in 20 years, I figure it's game over for all but the very few to buy internal combustion engine vehicles, or all oil is shunted to food production and people go back to reading books, playing sports, going to school, and hanging out. And working in the fields. Hard manual labor for almost all of us. The few remaining will be doctors, a few high ranking military and police officials, and the guys who make sure the sewer system keeps working.
The third?
Everyone fighting over a job picking apples with baseball bats and an image of their hungry children at home in the back of their minds.