Peak Oil – what is to become of life as we know it?

The last few weeks have been for me an amazing ride learning about Peak Oil, which is going to impact us alot more quickly than the effects of global warming. Peak oil is the point in time where the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction occurs resulting in a gradual decline in the amount of oil we can remove from the earth. Alot more simply, when it becomes too difficult for oil to be extracted and the productivity of oil extracting goes down, rapidly. This is so much more of an issue for us to think about right now as I learned from the wonderful book Choosing Eden by Adrienne Langman.

Choosing Eden by Adrienne Langman, Peak oil energy crisis

I definitely recommend reading this book, as it tells us of Adrienne and Larry, an average middle aged couple who pack up their belongings, leave their family and move to Northern NSW to start a farm, later known as Eden Forest. This is where I first understood Peak Oil and what it is going to mean for us all as the way life works as we know it now is going to change so significantly. Peak oil seems like a problem that will not affect us as we are so removed from the process of extracting oil, all we know is that it magically arrives at the petrol station for us to fill up our cars. Peak oil will affect more than just driving our vehicles. “When global oil reserves run low, the price of food, fuel and other everyday necessities will skyrocket out of the reach of ordinary people.” [Choosing Eden]

Have a look around you right now. Almost everything we are surrounded by is made of plastic, created with oil. What happens when the price of oil increases as it most definitely will? The biggest impact that Peak Oil will have on our lives will be in the area of food. We have it so easy today, we can just pop down to the supermarket and grab whatever we want when we need it, regardless of time of day or time of year. What will happen when food producers can’t pay the extreme fuel costs to drive their product to the supermarket? What about all the produce that we import from overseas, how will the companies pay for the even bigger costs for shipping or air freight? I don’t want to startle you all, but the reality is that we are not at all prepared for what is coming to us. Now is the time for us to change our lifestyles and prepare ourselves for what is coming. If you do nothing else, please start thinking about growing some of your own produce. Justin and I have recently started a little vegetable patch in our front garden of our Woolloongabba house (pics to follow soon!)! We literally have a 1m x 4m bed to work with… but even that is enough to begin to prepare yourself. You do not have to start with a fully fledged garden growing every variety of vegetable (though it is certainly my goal!).

Another amazing resource I found dealing with Peak Oil is the BBC documentary called Farm for the Future, which follows the journey of Rebecca Hosking and her family’s farm. She is trying to prepare their farm for the age of expensive oil, where they will not be able to afford fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides or fungicides for their crops. Though I doubt many of you are thinking of starting up a livestock farm it is still very interesting to hear from some amazing people who are definitely in-the-know. I believe all parts of this documentary are available on YouTube, the first part is below.

Finally, I have hardly touched on Peak Oil really but I encourage you to have a look around the internet about it and if nothing else, read the first half of this article.