Oil – The Cold Black Facts – A Special Report

The History of oil, what it is, what it is not, how we use it and our oil future.

Oils History:

• Until the 1950’s,  McCamey Texas was the world largest producer of oil. There were 6 barrels of oil being discovered for every one barrel being pumped and the everyone thought the oil would never end. McCamey Texas is now a ghost town.
• In 1950’s Dr. M. Hubbard said that US Oil would peak in 10 to 15 years. He was laughed at.   1n the 1970’s we ran out. His statement was based on a “Discovery Bell Curve” which said oil production continues to go up even after the oil discovery’s drop off, and that the rate that we run out of oil can be measured on the lack of new discoveries.
• Iran oil production peaked at 6 Mil barrels a day in 1973. They now produce 3 Mil barrels a day today.
• Saudi Arabia has had only 1 significant oil discovery in last 30 years.
• The oil embargo of the 1970’s was based on the Egyptians and Israelis struggle over oil.
• Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait for an oil field.
• When the United States invaded Iraq, the first thing we did was secure the oil fields.
• Oil deposits in South Africa drove the Genocide in Darfur.

What Oil is not:

• Oil is not like a field of wheat, or a flowing river. It does not grow and it does not flow. It is not renewable. There is only a certain amount of it, and when it is gone, we must wait another 300,000 years for the earth to produce 1 pint of it.

What oil is:

• Oil is a hazardous material that pollutes our air, water and soil.
• Oil is what are planet runs on. From the pacifier we put in our babies mouths, to the coffins we are buried in, oil permeates every aspect of our lives.
• At our current rate of consumption and population growth, scientific estimates say that we have as little as 40 years before we run out.

What we do with oil:

• 70 % of barrel goes to transportation.
• The average person uses over 100 petroleum products every day, from the bacon wrapper the cut open in the morning to the toothbrush they brush their teeth with before they go to sleep.
• The construction of 1 car consumes 57 barrels of oil. It cost’s Saudi Arabia $57.00 harvest those barrels, and it costs us $4,275.00 to buy that oil from them.
• We use the oil that is bought from dictatorships, who use our petrol dollars to arm themselves and attempt to attack us and end the way of life that they themselves provide to us.
• Last year, China increased its importation of oil by 25%.
• The United States uses 25% of the worlds oil but only have 2% of world oil reserves.
• We use so much oil because gasoline is one of the cheapest liquid you can by in the US and costs less per ounce than bottled water.

The future:

• We are going from a world of cheap and abundant oil to a world of expensive and rare oil.
• There is not a company on the New York stock exchange that does not expect cheap and abundant energy. When that ends, financial institutions will crash.
• The rate of new oil discovery is down world wide.
• The planets population doubles every 40 years.
• There are more people alive right now than have ever died in history.
• 58 countries are producing less oil than they have in the past.
• 40 years ago, 50% of the world didn’t use oil. Now, 95% of the world does.
• Even if we all started driving hybrids over night, we would be using as much gas in 10 years as we are using right now, just because of population increase.
• Oil sand production uses more natural gas to produce the oil, than the oil that results as a product of that production.
• In order to replace oil with nuclear power, we would have to build 10,000 of the largest reactors and the worlds supply of Uranium would be gone in 10 years.
• What happens when demand increases and supply flattens or drops? Oil producing countries will continue to hoard their oil, and oil consuming countries will try taking it by force of arms, resulting in resource wars. (This is obviously, already happening)

Whether you believe in Creationism or Evolution, you must admit that we are using it at a far greater rate than the earth can produce it.

There is every indication that we have used at least half of the planets oil in the last 100 years. At current rates of use and population growth, we must assume that we have a very limited amount of time to wean ourselves off of our oil addiction.

American politicians like to talk about ridding ourselves of “foreign dependence” on oil, but even if we did things like open up the Arctic National Wildlife Area to oil exploration and production, even at full capacity, it could only produce 2% of our oil demand.

The fact is, that the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones, and we didn’t stop riding horses because we ran out of hay. We will continue to need oil. We will need it for things like building materials, plastics and pharmaceuticals. What we have left in the ground should be used for these purposes.

It is the 70% of oil use for transportation that we must find alternate sources for, and those sources must be renewable. Those sources must be things that we can use to power our society, forever.

Our very lives, the lives of future generations and indeed, the future of mankind depends on moving into a renewable energy future. Right now.

photo credit: azrainman

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