Adapt or Relocate - The Answer to the Oil Crisis

If oil disappeared tomorrow, so would most of the population here. If the countries supplying us with oil cut off our supply and we only utilized what we, ourselves, produced, the price of that commodity would escalate and could only be afforded by the wealthy. Factories that depend upon oil to make their products or run their equipment would shut down. Vehicles that utilize oil and gas to run their engines such as farm equipment, trucks, and cars would be immobilized. Without the tools to produce food and deliver it to the cities throughout the U.S., we would starve.

In The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, author Thom Hartmann states pointedly that “Survival and prosperity both hinge on how much sunlight energy is under your control.” The sunlight captured by plants over 400 million years ago created the reservoirs of oil that we have been harvesting for decades. The technology to access the oil and utilize it for thousands upon thousands of products, made the United States the most powerful nation on earth. But oil is not an inexhaustible resource.

A study by the Geneva, Switzerland based international petroleum-industry consulting firm, Petroconsultants, points out that, “…declining supplies (of oil) will cause oil production in 2050 to be at levels similar to the 1960’s when the planet only had three billion people on it. But most demographers expect that in 2050 the world population will exceed 10 billion. Imagine: ten billion people alive, but fuel for only three billion. This would leave seven billion people—more than the entire population of the planet today—living on the edge of famine.”

If that were the only problem, it would be problem enough. But earth is experiencing crisis in many quadrants. In May of 2003, “Nature,” a prestigious science journal, published the results of 50 years of data gathered by marine biologists Ransom A. Myers and Boris Worm. The article states, “The world’s oceans have lost over 90% of large predatory fish, with potentially severe consequences for the ecosystem.” After World War II, studies showed that “…Japanese fishermen in the deep parts of the Pacific typically caught 10 large fish for every 100 baited long line hooks they place out. Today only one out of a hundred hooks brings back a fish.” We are exhausting our oceans.

There may be a grim but efficient solution to the overpopulation dilemma. Due to an incredibly mobile world population, the speed with which diseases can spread is alarming. Thom Hartmann tells that “A recent report prepared by the United States government says: “Among infectious diseases, tuberculosis is the leading killer of adults in the world today and poses a serious challenge to international public health work, according to the World Heath Organization.” Hartmann goes on to say that one-third of the world’s population is infected with the TB bacillus. When an infected person coughs or sneezes the bacilli remain suspended for hours in the air and can be inhaled by others. TB currently kills more adults each year than AIDS, malaria, and tropical diseases combined.

So why do things look so good? Why don’t we hear the alarm being sounded? Well, the alarm is being muffled by corporations, politicians, lobbyists and others, who have a vested interest in ‘business as usual.’ What happened to Al Gore? He made some noise! As Vice President of the United State he had a platform, he had the world’s ear, and he proclaimed his message with passion and clarity. Have we forgotten? Did we not believe him? I don’t get it!

Gore’s recent book, “Our Choice,” spells out what needs to be done if our species is to survive the end of oil, pollution, global warming, and overpopulation.  Other species are going extinct at an unprecedented rate. The change in climate or pollution is altering ecosystems and destroying natural habitats and the inhabitants that cannot adapt or relocate simply disappear. The human inhabitants of earth don’t have a relocation option. We will have to adapt to survive. As Al Gore says in the introduction to his book: “There is an old African proverb that says: If you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. We have to go far, quickly. We can solve the climate crisis, it will be hard, to be sure, but if we can make the choice to solve it, I have no doubt whatsoever that we can and will succeed.”