[willjones4]

Besides Olduvai (which I think says 2012), are there other theories on this?

[Dreamtwister]

Well if you've been following the news, you might have noticed that the lights are ALREADY going out in several places.

[MacG]

Here? About 30 minutes before I click the switch and go to bed.

[deafskeptic]

Yeah what he said. According to the most recent up date of the Olduva Gorge theory, we could be facing a perment blackout worldwide as early as next year.

I don't expect it to happen all at once. Most likely it will be region wide then nationwide and finally global wise depending on coal and gas supplies.

USA and UK are facing critical shortages of natural gas and according to my information, 90% of new power plants in the USA are gas powered. I must take note here that it takes time to build a coal powered plant and as we get low on engery supplies, it will be more and more difficult to do what we did in the past.

If I recall correctly, at least one African nation is facing a nation wide blackout in the comming weeks. However, the blackout was caused by militants blowing up a pipeline...

I am hoping Duncan is wrong but if he's right, life as we know it will be very different as we'd not be able to cook, clean clothes or other wise do tasks that we take for granted.

[AtmaStorm]

No idea. It's one of those things that's tough to pin down.
I know electricity in my area has substantially climbed, and Canadians generally experience some of the cheapest rates in the world.
The Ontario government has sent homeowners pamphlets discussing things like microhydro generators and solar power and how homeowners can put electricity into the grid to earn money.

[Cobra_Strike]

If Bush keeps pushing the 'plug in' hybrids, its a sooner rather then later thing....If there is anything that comes on stream that adds any sort of drain on energy sysyems it will only serve to bring the blackouts/brownouts sooner.