[Bas]

Looking at the political/economical threads I have noticed I and everybody else still talk in the conventional way about politics; China will overtake the US and not long therafter India will too. Things like that seem to be very seperate in my and everybodies elses mind from the reality of PO that will soon impose itself on us and the world (well, in a year or two that is).

It is because PO is still very much a 'virtual' thing, as we don't see news on tv about an impending grand oil crisis. (like we have been announced the booming economies of India and China)

[medicvet]

that is just it. That by the time we get our act together in the US to realize about Peak Oil that China and yes, India, will be benefiting the most from it, and least likely to be concerned about it at all..thus making the end outcome that much worse.

[Bas]

Well, maybe the Chindia thing is a bad example. What I meant to say is that we were and still are being fed expectations of the future that really don't take PO into account, stuff like 'by 2100 the world will have 9 billion people' and 'the economy will double by 2030' etc. All the mainstream sources of information (media, economic/demographic predictions etc) always have been feeding us this BS as if the whole of the 21st century will be business as usual, we've all been brainwashed by this kind of information since we were children.

And you can still see it often in political discussions here on the forum: if a discussion is not directly related to PO, alot of people (me included) are inclined to debate as if it is and is going to be "business as usual".

[pea-jay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('medicvet', 't')hat is just it. That by the time we get our act together in the US to realize about Peak Oil that China and yes, India, will be benefiting the most from it, and least likely to be concerned about it at all..thus making the end outcome that much worse.

[bl00k]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Bas', 'L')ooking at the political/economical threads I have noticed I and everybody else still talk in the conventional way about politics;

[Kingcoal]

A little tiny glimpse of the future can be seen in what has happened to corn prices in the past couple of weeks. The US decides to "go ethanol" and all hell breaks out with the price of corn. Mexico, whom imports 80% of their corn from the US, sees a huge impact on its poor who depend on cheap corn from the US. One reason why Mexico imports their corn from the US is from subsidies for corn and the wide spread use of petrochemical fertilizers in the US which makes corn artificially cheap. The "Green Revolution" is one of the first casualties of the effects of expensive oil. We are going to be paying more and more for our food in the future.

Lenin said that "grain is the best currency" and I couldn't agree more. Peak Oil will drive up prices for foodstuffs world wide. There will probably be "grain wars." China has a lot of mouths to feed and may be accepting rice as payment for its goods in the future. The thing that a lot of new comers to this site don't understand is that they "eat oil" everyday.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Kingcoal', 'A') little tiny glimpse of the future can be seen in what has happened to corn prices in the past couple of weeks. The US decides to "go ethanol" and all hell breaks out with the price of corn. Mexico, whom imports 80% of their corn from the US, sees a huge impact on its poor who depend on cheap corn from the US. One reason why Mexico imports their corn from the US is from subsidies for corn and the wide spread use of petrochemical fertilizers in the US which makes corn artificially cheap. The "Green Revolution" is one of the first casualties of the effects of expensive oil. We are going to be paying more and more for our food in the future.

Lenin said that "grain is the best currency" and I couldn't agree more. Peak Oil will drive up prices for foodstuffs world wide. There will probably be "grain wars." China has a lot of mouths to feed and may be accepting rice as payment for its goods in the future. The thing that a lot of new comers to this site don't understand is that they "eat oil" everyday.

[gampy]

I think you can see the problems we will have with peak oil in the relatively minor supply issues today caused by lack of refining capacity and the vagaries the petroleum industry at large.

Here in Ontario, due to supply problems, (more to do with a railway strike, and the fact that Ontario itself does not have spare refining capacity) some gas stations did not have any fuel to sell, and you saw line ups, and a little hoarding.

It is at most, an inconvenience for people at this stage. These are looked at as temporary supply issues. As these supply issues become more frequent, and last longer, I think the general public will start to come to grips with the issue. I don't think it has reached that critical mass yet. We all can understand peak oil in an academic fashion, but until we have trouble getting gas, it will remain an academic issue. To be thought about later.

It's not just a matter of price. People will pay $10 a gallon quite easily. It's when you can't find any gas to buy, is when the shit hits the fans.