Oil and our lives (Jeff Rubin)

…Take away cheap oil and the world gets a whole lot smaller. Trade – either by air cargo or ship container – begins to shrivel. The tourist industry that many nations depend on starts to wither.

California strawberries and New Zealand lamb disappear from your supermarket. Suburbs turn into ghost towns as commuters ditch cars and move closer to city centres and public transit.

Rubin is not the first to make the link between oil, globalization and consumer values. There’s little doubt that oil above $200 would wreak havoc on global trade and consumption.

The real question is whether he’s right that prices will reach that level. There’s plenty of debate among experts on the economics of oil supply and demand.

Montreal Gazette