[Raptor235]

Do you guys think that this oil scare was real that happened over the last year? I mean now things are returning to normal... could be because of coming elections I don't know... I don't know the history of the oil supplies but wasn't there an oil scare in the 80s as well?

I think at one point we'll run out but right now I have no clue where we stand with oil... ???

[saturnsc]

I would recommend the movies The End of Suburbia(this one changed my life), and any of the ones about Cuba and its green revolution in agriculture following the end of cheap Soviet oil.

For more info just do a google search for "peak oil". There's too many websites to list and anyone will get the point of the whole thing fast enough.

The point for me is that we need to open up to the possibility that world oil production may begin to dimish soon, if it hasn't already. i don't think we will see anything gigantic very soon, but within 5 years there may be some uncomfortable truths coming to the masses' attention. If you look, for example, at the Harper government's "environmental plan" you will see that they are very realistic about Canadian oil and gas peaking.

[horselover]

Where is the world's largest oil supply hidden? That's the big question. I heard recently that there is oil hidden that most people don't know wabout.

[Raptor235]

I'm not sure if there is that much oil left... Israel recently said they discovered oil... something like 130 barells a day which is absolutely nothing... they say there are indications of more of it being in the area....

[willsomebody]

There is tons of oil out there. The problem for years has been it wasn't economically fesible to extract and produce it. Like the oil sands in cananda, which even at current growth trends could last for centuries. The nazis back in WW2 figured out how to produce oil from coal. There are many ways in which oil will be around for a long time. The matter is when other sources become more profitable.

[Raptor235]

good points willsomebody

[workinman]

change is coming..
'cheap' oil will not last forever.. and the problem is not in replacing it, but in learning to live without it. we need to adapt. oil ranks up there with fire as amount of impact its had on the world. i believe the future will be about the next step. the oil era is winding down.

[Dreamweaverr]

Maybe I should have learned from my uncle. We may end up back with the horse and buggy if we don't find alternatives. He built carriages by hand for the Amish community and he did a beautiful job. What a craftsman he was! Two of my cousins did all the upholstery work for him too.

[Simon47]

Originally Posted by workinman

change is coming..
'cheap' oil will not last forever.. and the problem is not in replacing it, but in learning to live without it. we need to adapt. oil ranks up there with fire as amount of impact its had on the world. i believe the future will be about the next step. the oil era is winding down.

Currently Iraq sits on the largest deposits of light sweet crude known so far. and strangely, were it not for Sadam thy would not liely be left even though his scorched earth policy during GW1 consumed a lot. New sattelites and research are determining the high probability of additional rich sources but...take it from the prospector...doon't mean nothin'. Light sweet crude may be the cleanest to process but it is also eventually going to be very expensive and even if we did manage to "kick the addiction"; Is the developing world not going to make up for lost consumptionn since alternatives willl be beyond their budgets. Keep in mind also that low sulphur coal is almost exhausted too. You hear the propaganda about clean coal but the "idea" of clean coal is just that and wholly depedant upon continuous development on improving emission control technology....to the tune of;" wegot hiii iigh hopes" . The reality, whether it is voluntary or, kyoto driven or ordain by circumstance the time limits and levels of proposed reduction are in service to economic interests. I am trying to find a treatise that David suzuki did on the ecomoics of the environment and how the business model does not factor the environment into the economic model as if the environment would always be as it is. It is a cost of doing business. We know that consumption will reduce available supply but no consideration is given to the consequence of consuming that supply or to the supporting ecosystem achieving a state of decline. In business terms, we just move to the next, available resource, make our buck and move on again. I do this for a living. Does it make me a hypocrite? No but...I have no issues about talking myself out of the mining and in to the solar or biomass recovery energy business or other likely and eventually profitable enterprise and manageing my mineral enterprises in a sound, reasonable environmental and less impacting way and simply because it makes for highe profit if you are efficient at your business.. If they are going to mine, I want them mining the one I find. That's my reality for business survival and a reality for my community's survival, today. Today makes a profound impression and a large footprint. There is a new set of volunttary standards coming out to go with the iso9000 to 140001 environmental standards. They are Standards for Social Responsibility. It is, in my view a lot of the old good corporate citizen thing and pandering to an ivnvestment market begging for ethical investments. The rhetoric about the environment today that comes from corporations adds up to a massive and cooperative marketing campaign to assuage the public to continue buying and conducting business as usual because they can keep their consumptive lifestyle and do some good while feeling comfortable that the Government and Big corporations have the problem well i hand. How enlightened of them to be instituting sustainable practices. Make your target for indusrial retrofit and compliance 5 years into the future and not 50, then I'll believe they are trying. Kyoto is an effort but it's not really trying if you can count onn buying credits because you knnow you can't meet targets. Pllleeeease!.

Sorry

Sim

[Simon47]

Originally Posted by Dreamweaverr

Maybe I should have learned from my uncle. We may end up back with the horse and buggy if we don't find alternatives. He built carriages by hand for the Amish community and he did a beautiful job. What a craftsman he was! Two of my cousins did all the upholstery work for him too.

You're more of an optimist than me. I was thinking, thatcher. I was also thinking of a waterwheel in my creek. In Ontario you can draw 10000 litres a day according to MOE standards. That would support a fish pond and some irrigation. Of course, I will need a small wetland to filter the water.Now I have to become a carpenter.thanks for the inspiration folks.

I was looking for ways and if anyone wants to help with input ...to tie our pioneer past into sustainable terms that are becoming ever more valid today and can demonstrate where we need to redifine our societal skills development to include our best traditions.

I volunteer at the local Pioneer Museum and my personal pet diatribe in everything is demonstrating sustainability and I call my area a living classroom as often as I call it the undiscovered country.

History is half of my work and a hobby. I have found a number of old homesteads and remnants of past communities buried by the woods. It's way cool. Found an old steam genny an old model A, seemingly in the middle of nowhere today. Old garden and flower patches in buried cemeteries long forgotten or neglected.

Museums in fact are an important social function of community social well being, like libraries, arts and culture or good governance. I haven't found a subject or aspect in my community that I can't relate to Sustainable Principles and give meaning to the word sustainability as an important consideration to everything we do and have done to get where we are today. We're so clever we pickled ourselves. perhaps we may return to a unique form of fundamentalism where old skill are new again. Hopefully we can choose to before we are forced.