Peak Oil Crisis in Chesterfield, UK?

So I was doing a little internet research about the looming peak oil crisis today. And interesting search term kept coming up, "Peak Oil Chesterfield". It kept catching my eye even though I didn't know what it was. It sounded something like it was a specific location in the world where peak oil was really coming to a head. I decided I needed to look into this further as it might be the canary in the coal mine, at least so I thought. 

It turns out though that "Peak Oil Chesterfield" has nothing specific to do with the peak oil crisis. The location is in Chesterfield in the United Kingdom. It is a local oil delivery company which has chosen for it's name, Peak Oil. I mean it's almost laughable if it wasn't so sad, right? I assume this particular area of the UK is mountainous and is at the peak of this mountain and hence the name. They say they have been in business for over 35 years and, assuming they have had the name that whole time, I'm sure they chose the name based on the topography having no idea of what peak oil would mean to you and I.

Don't get me wrong I'm sure they are a small to medium sized family business that delivery oil just like all the oil delivery companies here in the US. They are just families trying to make a buck, and until we as consumers stop calling for deliveries they are crazy not to continue this business. They could have chosen a name which was their last name, or any other multitudes of options that you see on the sides of oil trucks around making their deliveries. Put they chose peak oil. It is just a head shaker like no other!

Peak oil to me of course means the phenomenon where once you take out half of the oil out of the ground from a reserve then it is going to get harder each year to take out the same amount. It'll get more and more expensive and soon will get to the point where the amount you can sell it for isn't worth the cost to get it out of the ground. That is what happened here in the US in the 70 and lead to the infamous gas shortages and rationing. This is also what is speculated is either all ready happened or just about to happen world wide. We forgot about all the pain of the 70's because we quickly found a cheap alternative in the Middle East for cheap oil. But as we are hitting the peak oil there as well we are going to be reminded of that pain as well. The trick is this has become a global market and there aren't other cheap sources of oil to be found once these are gone!

What is Green Tech?

These days I seem to hear the term "Green Tech" more and more, which is a good thing! I kind of thing of Green Tech and two things but really the definition that most people think of when the say it means the invention of new technology which will reduce green house gases and be good (or better) for the environment. 

Examples of Green Tech


So what is green technology? An example of green technology would be a new light bulb with puts out the same amount of light with less energy usage. So the new invention is going to use less energy and therefore less CO2 is going to get released to power that light bulb.

Green technology doesn't have to be what we typically think of as technology though. Even if something isn't electronics or science it could still be considered green tech, at least according to my green technology definition. New green technology could be something as mundane as a new sponge that somehow required less soap to wash the same amount of dishes. This would help the environment because the company wouldn't have to make as much soap, so the the energy involved in the manufacture and delivery of bottles of soap would be reduced.

More typically though green tech is associated with clean energy though. So a new solar panel would be a great example of what most people associate with green tech. Or lets say a wind turbine which can get more energy out of the same amount of wind would be a nice fit as well.

My other meaning of Green Tech

So for me the other meaning for green tech has more to do with fixing the issues we have caused with the environment. So the planet is dirty with oil spills, the air is full of small particles from industry, and the atmosphere is full of green house gasses. Another meaning of green technology for me is a new invention which would directly remove this mess from our environment. So maybe a machine that would fly around and filter out the particles from the air, that would be great. Or something that would extract the CO2 from the atmosphere and store it some where.

The key difference to me between the two is that one is something that reduces the impact of what we do to the planet and the other cleans up the effects of what we do to the planet. Both are very important and likely necessary if we are going to save the day before we ruin Earth for all of us!

Oil Pricing And How Soon We Are Going To Run Out Of It

I heard a really interesting news story on the radio this morning. They were talking about oil pricing and why even though US demand is down overall the price at the pump remains high. Typically when demand goes down the price should be going down as well. For the time of year (gas is usually cheaper in the winter time) gasoline and diesel are are historically high national averages. 

Lower Demand


So it turns out that the demand for oil is down in the US because of two main factors. The first is that the economy is still bad and many folks are still unemployed. Because there are many fewer people driving back and forth to work every day we are buying less gas. Also because people have less money in their pocket because of the bad economy they are thinking twice about spending at the pump. The other main factor is that, on average, the cars on the road in the US are getting more and more fuel efficient. Pruis, Volt, and Leaf and others are major contributors to this reduced need for gas. But all newer cars in general are getting better and better gas mileage which is having a real effect on the amount of gas we are all buying.

Why is the price saying so high then?


Well it turns out that the oil refiners here in the states started to realize they were ending up with a surplus. They also realized that the emerging nations are needing more and more gas and diesel, so our refiners are actually exporting it to other nations. This is a time when the overall economy being so global is bad for us. Normally give the existing conditions and reduced demand we would see a nice drop in the price at the pump. But because US oil refiners have found a market to still be able to sell that surplus the price is staying as high as ever. Ouch.

Craziness!

So let's think about this. Oil is pumped out of the ground in the Middle East. It is them put in oil tankers and shipped across oceans to the US. US oil refiners in NJ, Louisiana, and other coastal states then refine this oil into it's elements (gasoline, diesel, etc). Most of that is then trucked in tanker trucks to the gas stations all over the US for us to buy. But increasingly some of that gasoline and diesel is being put back into oil tankers and shipped back over oceans to developing countries where demand for oil products is increasing rapidly. The inefficiency of that whole process just boggles my mind!! The energy that it takes to create oil which we use to create energy is staggering!

When are we going to run out?


So just in case you never thought about it before, oil is a finite resource. That means there is an exact amount of it underground on Earth and no more. Once it's gone it's gone. It's been so plentiful for so many years that for a long time nobody put any thought into running out of it. But it is indeed going to happen and really is all ready happening.

The key really isn't so much when we suck the last drop out of the ground, because we are never as a planet ever going to see the last drop extracted at all. The key is when it becomes too expensive to pull oil out of the ground to make it worth doing. This is oversimplified but basically once you take out half of the oil in a given reserve it becomes harder and therefore more expensive to get the remaining half (peak oil). It increases exponentially as you get past the halfway point. So each year past the midway point of removing oil from the ground you are going to end up getting less then the year before and it will cost you more. As we reach that midway point as a planet (which many argue we just recently did or are just about to) oil is going to become more and more expensive. This is why sites that were historically not worth bothering with are becoming financially viable, like oil tar sands. Many of these new sites seem to take more energy to get the oil then that oil can produce. But because oil is become scarce it is becoming financially viable so it's being done.

The trick is that yes it seems that because of some key factors (the economy and better fuel efficiency in automobiles) the US is reducing it's over all oil demand. However many emerging countries are just hitting their stride like we in the US did as we industrialized. These are countries like China and India which have much larger populations then we do here in the US. Because these countries have such large populations they have the potential to dwarf our oil demand in future years. So if we aren't all ready at the midpoint of oil then we are racing there VERY quickly!

Rio 20 - Another Conference

Rio 20 - June 2012

It seems like every year or so there is some big conference of nations that is supposed to be the beginning of saving the world. They usually start with a few letter and followed buy a number. G8, G20, Rio 20, etc. Rio 20 is the next of these types of conferences. The interesting twist with the Rio 20 is that it focuses not just on the environment but on sustainable development. It seems idea is that they world is going to grow in population (we just hit 7 Billion and 8 Billion is probably just a little more then a decade away). Much of this population growth seems to be in developing nations. So if we as a planet can get involved and try to get this development to happen in a green way right from the start we can at least stem some of the bad effects that developed nations went through. 

Will it end in Disappointment? 


Like I mentioned it seems that most of these conferences just end in disappointment. Part of the problem though is that they come in with such lofty goals. Like they are hoping that the leaders will come to some kind of conclusive decision on some key point. They really want it to go their way because it will really set the world in motion to being greener, even though they know all the folks with money who back all the campaigns of all these leaders are against it. What do you think is going to happen right? It seems like every time the leaders make it look like it was really close and they say they really wanted to but they just couldn't agree to some small issue and it all fell apart. What a surprise!

So far I haven't heard of any such lofty goals for the Rio 20. So from that stand point it appears its more of just a meeting without specific goals so it would be hard to classify anything as a failure. They really just are saying they are trying to launch a global conversation. Now, don't get me wrong I'm all for this, but at the same time without some kind of concrete goal it hard to see them really getting anything does except for collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel points. I sincerely wish them luck though and hope they succeed. We as a planet really need to shift our thinking and begin to change our actions. We are going to run out of oil and it is going to dynamically change how we live, especially because there are just too many people in the world to sustain without oil energy! The only real question is how early we as a population really realize we are close to this kind of crash. The early we start acting the softer the landing is going to be. If we wait until we just can't afford gas for our car anymore it's going to be a really rough go!

So for Rio 20, and any other conference with some letters and numbers for that matter. I wish you luck but then again its not folks like me you have to convince, it's the folks with all the money that pay for election campaigns!

Environment Jobs

Green Jobs

I personally think that "Environmental Jobs" is what is going to save us from what industry has done to the planet. Oil, plastic, and general chemical pollution has really harmed this planet to what many think is near the tipping point. The problem is those industries have really made their owners an insane amount of money. No matter where you stand on the 1% vs. 99% argument, you can't deny that these industries have employed millions and made our economy what it is today. 

Many that would like to keep industry going as it is and not worry about pollution (i.e. - the 1%'ers) have argued that getting rid of their industry would cause double digit unemployment and ruin the country financially. The sad part is they are right! Too many folks work in these industries to where if they went away tomorrow our economy would implode.

How Environment Jobs Will Save the Day


The key is that all these people are going to need some place else to work instead of for the oil and chemical industries. What the argument that we can't live without these industries fails to address is that nobody is saying that we are going to stop needing all that energy! Nobody is arguing that we no longer need cars. Nobody is arguing that we don't need electricity. Nobody is saying we don't need the products in our home that we've all become accustomed to.

What we are saying is that we still want to drive our car and power our home just as much, but we want all that power to come from sustainable sources. If we could get moving on this and really make it happen in earnest (which won't happen until the big money industry owners get out of the pockets of elected officials) then we would need to build an enormous network of solar panels and wind turbines and bio-diesel plants, etc. It's not that all the folks that work in industry now would be unemployed, it's that they would just be doing something different and good for the planet. And sure yet, people hate change, and a drastic change like that would be hard on many people. Some old workers that have known nothing but oil their whole career would have a hard time moving into green jobs where they were the new kid on the block. On a macro level though this is something that has to happen and makes total sense

What are Environmental Jobs?


Sure some environmental jobs are more research jobs. They are people who are studying the environment and looking at the effects of what we are doing to our planet and how we can change that. But the environmental jobs I'm talking about here are also knows as green jobs. They are positions at firms that are building wind turbines, solar panel arrays, kinetic wave generators, and bio-diesel plant workers. They are also the people who are researching new ways to create power in a sustainable way. Sure right now we think of wind and solar, and they are great options. But maybe the real answer that we end up using to power our lives is something that hasn't even been thought of let along invented yet.

Pollution Facts

Years ago when we thought of pollution we always thought about smog. The smoke that was pouring out of the smoke stacks on top of factories. Or maybe the CFC's coming out of hairspray that was making a hole in the ozone layer. All of that is true but there are more and worse kinds of pollution that we really need to be aware of these days. Here are the pollution facts.

It is indeed bad to see the smoke pouring out of smoke stacks on factories but not for the reason that we all though. We used to worry about the particles that cause soot and smog and breathing issue. These are still an issue, but the bigger culpret in that smoke is the CO2 that is being release into the atmosphere and causing global warming. This environmental pollution is the worst kind because it is having the largest effect on the planet. Environment pollution of any kind is obviously not a good thing, but CO2 is really killing us!

There are many types of pollution in this day an age. I personally think we need to worry most about air pollution, assuming you include our whole atmosphere in "air". I mean I worry about the particles in the air that cause breathing and other issues, but as you can tell the the greenhouse gases that bother me the most of all. Air pollution causes are really all around us. Factories are a big contributer, but everything from the cars we drive to the heat in our house are a part of the problem. Unless you are getting energy (in whatever for for whatever use) from solar, wind, or some other sustainable source you are causing air pollution. If you don't believe me, do some research and find all the pollution information you can. You'll find I'm right.

Plastic Pollution

Another form of pollution that really bothers me is plastic pollution. Not only does the process of making plastic bottles and products release harmful chemicals to the environment, but they are also bad for us. Drinking "healthy and clean and fresh" bottled water is literally killing us. The BPA in the plastic is leaching out into the food in those containers and we are drinking it right up. BPA mimick estrogen in our bodies and is having all kinds of effect on us as a population including increase cancer rates and early developmental issues. There are of course other undocumented and untrackable health effects because BPA is considered safe by the FDA, which is a sham, but don't get me started on that. On top of all those issues there is plastic pollution. As if it wasn't enough that producing the bottles is bad for us, and not enough that drinking/eating from the containers is bad for us, but then a large number of them eventually make their way to the ocean. There is literally and island of plastic garbage that floats around in our ocean. Because the water current remain basically the same in our oceans, in the areas where they loop in a circle the plastic floats and just collects. If you haven't seen this before Google plastic pollution facts. It's depressing!

Information about pollution can be found online and in many documentaries, but once you see if face to face it just sucks the life out of you! There are so many issues that are covered up or not noticed that I could write a very long pollution essay! We all say we are going to do something, and often we mean it, but good intentions aren't going to fix this planet. Do something!

Global Warming Facts: It's Real Folks!

Wikipedia's global warming definition is the follwing: Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its related effects.



Global Warming Pictures

 The effects of global warming are all around us everyday. You see many of the obvious one everyday on TV and they are dramatic and an enormous problem and that's why they get so much attention. The reduction in the polar cap is a big one you see all the time, which huge chunks of glaciers falling into the ocean as it recedes. Another dramatic shot is pictures of glaciers from the same vantage point today and 20-40 years ago. Day to day you don't notice that kind of thing but when you look at those kind of global warming effects over time you really can see the damage that is being done.

There are many that will argue that this is not a man made problem or even doubt that there is a such thing at global warming. Folks get with it! If you read scientific paper which are not funded by large corportations ALL of them say that the temperature of our planet is rising. Not only are they rising but they are rising very quickly. These are the global warming facts!

Not only is it the higher temperature, it's the speed at which it is risking that is the scary part. If you look at the ice cores and fossil records we can tell that the Earth has been hotter before but never has it warmed this quickly before. This very quick rise in temperature directly coincides with man discovery of oil! There is simply no doubting that global warming is real and caused by us!

What causes of global warming you ask? The very short answer is, humans. To be a little more detailed though it the increased consentration of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, etc) in our atmosphere. They are called greenhouse gases because they allow the rays and heat from the sun to enter Earth's atmosphere but do not allow them to escape. The effect of these global warming causes over time is to increase the temperature of Earth.

So if you are looking for the casues of global warming then you are really looking for what is causing more green house gases to be released into the atmosphere. These are human activities that release carbon dioxide and methane. Essentially this is burning things that contain carbon. Coal, wood, and oil are the big ones. Methane pound for pound has a much larger greenhouse effect but you always hear about carbon dioxide because it is so much more abundant then methane. For a while the folks who are against doing anything about global warming were arguing that cow farts were much worse for Earth then buring oil. It made for great news story lead-ins. Like all the arguments against global warming though the facts are warped to make their point. Yes a pound of methane in the atmosphere will reflect more heat back down to Earth then a pound of carbon dioxide. That is true. But there is just so vastly more carbon dioxide being released then methane that the arguement just doesn't make sense. It's the same as saying that a big dog bite is worse for you then a kitten scratch, which is obviously true. But they fail to mention it's one dog and one bite, but it's 10 billion kitten scratches all at once. The dog bite will hurt, but the kittens are going to kill you.

So if for some reason you are still on the fence about global warming then read up on it. Just make sure you know who is writing the global warming articles you read. Many doubter articles are written but groups that sound legit but are really just fronts for big business and folks that have a vested financial interest in not combating global warming and the end of our planet!

Bamboo Green

One of the coolest ways to go green is to use bamboo in construction when ever you can. Now you aren't going to start seeing bamboo framing lumber down at the home depot anytime soon. It doesn't have that kind of strength. But you can use it for finish types of jobs. Laminate flooring is one area that has really taken advantage of bamboo. Also, windows coverings.



Why is Bamboo Green?

You hear all the time about how we are deforesting the world, especially the rain forest. There is tons (literally) of carbon stored in the trees of the world. Humans release much CO2 in the process of cutting down trees from the energy that is required to cut down the trees, haul them to the mill, mill them, ship them to retail locations, etc. This is still not counting the carbon that is released in burning and decomposition of the waste from the tree that don't become home and furniture. The biggest CO2 loss is the loss of all the CO2 that would have been captured in the future by the trees that are cut down if they had just been left alone.

Bamboo is a quickly growing source of wood. You can use a relatively small acreage and grow a crop of bamboo which is cut down and sent to the mill. You can have it in an easily accessibly location so the energy it takes to cut it down and get it to mill and store is minimal compared to traditional foresting. Then once you cut it down you can replant and, relative traditional trees, quickly have a new crop ready to go again.


So the next time you are looking to update your home and you want to be green with your decisions think about bamboo as an option. It really looks great as a laminate flooring and wears well over time. It can be expensive, but if you shop around and look for sales you can find it as cheap if not cheaper then traditional laminate flooring.

Be Green

Be green.

It looks so basic but really it means many different things to different people. What does it really mean to be green?

Well the very basic answer is that you are doing things in a way that are good for Earth and it's environment. Being green could mean not throwing away plastic bottles and making sure they are recycled. Being green can mean taking steps in your home to use less electricity. Being green can mean taking steps to use less oil for driving and heating your home. Being green can mean buying your food locally and organically. Being green also means taking steps to combat the effects of global warming. There are really many areas of the green movement but they all have saving the Earth at their core.

While I agree that saving the Earth is indeed what we should all want to do with out any incentive, I also know that reality means it's not going to happen that easily. There are just too many incentives for too many people not to worry about saving the planet. The rub really comes in when you see that people and companies have never factored into their pricing what they are doing to the environment. Thing about the plastic packaging that comes along with any small electronic device that you might buy. The company that manufactured that device can likely tell you how much it cost them to produce or buy that packaging and get their product in it. I'm sure though they have no idea what the cost of that packaging finally being disposed of someplace in the planet. It's just not something that we are programmed to think about. Even on a personal level you might know how much you pay to have your trash taken away, but it is a flat monthly fee and throwing out one more package won't change the price. We pay for trash removal and not trash disposition. In other words, we are paying for the price for a company to stop at our house and take it to the dump. The price of that trash sitting in that landfill and all the effects it'll have in our environment aren't factored at any point along the way.

It a problem that was born into our thinking from way back in history when there were far less humans then there are now. If you go back far enough in history there just weren't enough humans doing bad environmental things to effect the environment as a whole. We could make things and throw things out and put them in a pile in the woods and while it wasn't a great thing, it just wasn't enough to hurt Earth. But then as our population number grew and we started doing worse and worse things from an environmental standpoint, our same thinking carried through. To be fair humans didn't really understand that what they were doing could have an effect on Earth. The trick is that as some of us were able to see what was happening was bad, the ball was all ready rolling very quickly downhill. We may have gotten into all this innocently enough but now we're all guilty and either we know it or we're pretending we don't. For years and year companies were going about their business without any concern or cost to them based on the impacts of what they were doing on the planet. This lack of cost was built into all their pricing. Imagine what would happen if every product we bought had to factor in it's impact on the environment. Or if we had to pay the real cost of throwing out the trash. It would really change what we buy, what we could afford to buy, and what we throw away.

Companies have had it too good for too long to want to give up this free cost of doing business. They have all the money and are working to convince the world that global warming is a hoax. Don't believe the hype! You and I need to be Green. Companies need to Green. The only question is really whether we as a planet are going to figure out what being green means and how to do it, before the effects of not being green ruin the whole planet for all of us!

How long until we run out of oil, and why this isn't the most important question!

The Problem

President Bush said it. We are addicted to oil. I don't know if we're addicted, but we count on it for everything, and don't yet have a viable alternative. The problem is that the end of oil is coming sooner then anyone of us thought, and that end is coming soon! I always comforted myself by thinking when it runs out, then "we" will come up with another alternative to power everything we use. The question is going to be if we have enough time to come up with a solution. This isn't a problem that our grandchildren will have to face, it is something we're going to need to solve in our lifetime!

Recently while researching "green" issues online I came across the following website from which I learned much of the information contained in this article. I highly suggest you take the time to check it out as there is much more detail then I have mentioned there. The site is Life after the Oil Crash.

We all know it. Fossil Fuel is not a renewable source of energy. We've always known it. The question has always been when will we run out of it! Until recently no one really worried about it because we kept finding more and more oil and seemed that we had plenty for a long long time. Thing are soon going to change!

If you think of the planets oil as a whole you could picture the entire supply in gallons (or barrels). I always pictured this as an enormous jug of oil with a spout. When anyone was pumping oil out of the ground we were essentially opening the spout and letting some out. Thus reducing the total amount left in the jug.

The problem is this metaphor isn't really accurate to how we get oil out of the ground. Instead of a straight line graph which all of the sudden goes down to zero when the last drop comes out of the metaphorical spout, the worlds oil supply is better represented as a bell curve. The oil that we can get out of the ground will increase every year until we hit the peak, and then will decrease every year as the same rate it had been increasing.



This is immensely important because of how dependent our world is on oil! The problem is that every year the world as a whole increases the amount of oil it will need to quench it's appetite. So for instance if we need 100 million barrels this year, then we'll need 110 million barrels next year, and so on with no reduction. So basically every year we'll need more and more oil.

However because oil extraction follows a bell curve, once we hit the peak of production that is going to be the max that we can take out of the ground for any one year. Every year there after we'll be able to get about 8% less then the year before. As a planet we are close to using all of the oil that comes out of the ground each year all ready. So as our demand increases every year, and the supply decreases every year we are going to run into issues. It is estimated that at just a 5% deficit for the year our economy which is so dependent on oil will fall apart! This means oil will become so expensive that most people will not be able to afford it. Therefore oil companies will not be able to produce it. So even though there is more oil in the ground we'll essentially have run out because it is no long economically viable to bother with it.

Think of all the things in our world that count on a constant supply of oil that will fall apart. All of the food we eat is produced by farmers that run nothing but diesel powered equipment. It is then transported the store by diesel powered trucks. It is then put on shelves in stores that are heated by oil or natural gas. The lights are on in the stores so we can see by electricity which is usually produced by burning natural gas or coal (natural gas by the way also follows the same bell curve and is expected to hit its peak approximately 10 years after oil). We then drive to the store in our gas powered cars. We then take them home to our electric refrigerators. We then use our electric or gas stove to cook the food. This is just the food industry. Just going to work burns gas to get there. If you work in an office the lights and heat are on there. The computer you use uses electricity. It took electricity to run the plant where the computer was manufactured. Etc, etc, etc. You get the picture. Total collapse of our economy! The next depression is coming!

How long do we have?

The US hit it's peak around 1970. Every year since then we have produced less oil. Most other regions of the world have also hit their peak and are on the decline. The one region of the world that is still climbing is the Middle East, which is why you hear so much about it and we are so dependent on it's oil. The problem is that it is estimated that they are only a few years away from hitting their peak as well. Other recent oil discoveries which are considered "large" would only supply the US for maybe a year!

In 1999 Vice President Cheney said the following:

By some estimates, there will be an average of two-percent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead, along with, conservatively, a three percent natural decline in production from existing reserves. That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional 50 million barrels a day.

As an interesting note President Bush's ranch is completely off the power grid. Through advanced technologies the range is self sufficient creating it's own energies to sustain itself. Is this a coincidence?

There are additional oil reserves that are embedded in shale and other hard to reach areas however they again are not enormous reserves that would sustain us for very long. Even if they could extract them it might take more energy then could be created by the oil extracted. In other words even if it was financially beneficial for an oil company to extract this oil, they would burn more oil in the process of extracting it then they would extract.

A solution is needed and fast! At least a ten year window would be needed to convert everything over to a newer technology rather then oil.

Why haven't I heard anything about this before?

Think about the impact of this kind of information on the economy. It would fall apart now instead of after we actually hit the peak in the middle east. Until recently President Bush said there was no such thing as global warming, and there was no issues with oil. In his state of the union address in January he finally mentioned the existence of global warming for the first time. I also recently heard on the news that he is pledging that we reduce our oil consumption as a country by 20% over the next 10 years. Why all of the sudden are these things important to him?

Also, you have to wonder about the war in Iraq. Even if there were not issues in the region we would run out of oil. However are they just trying to stabilize the region so that we can extend the flow of oil a few more year and "buy us some time" to come up with alternatives?

What are the alternatives?

This is the the hard part. Lets say for instance that we could power everything by solar power. That would be great and seems like we have solved the problem. The issue is then deploying this new power. You could just buy all the solar panels that you need. However in the plant that makes the solar panel they are using oil energy to produce them, as is the trucking company that brings them the raw materials, and the postal service that brings the panels to your house, etc. Basically even if you could quickly find the answer to replacing oil, it would take years to deploy it into the economy. In the mean time what would we be doing for energy. This is why it is going to have such a devastating effect on the world!

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that we need a solution to the oil crisis that is looming much sooner then almost everyone thinks. Even if we do find the solution the real question is if there is going to be time to implement this solution before the world economy falls apart!

Future articles

Check back to the Saving Green Blog often as future article will cover some of the following:

1. What the small silver lining to this problem is
2. How the greenhouse gas effect ties into this problem
3. Ways that you can help
   

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As part of this blog I have promised to bring you a useful tip at the end of each post if possible. This is helpful hint #3.

Helpful Hint #3

Did you know that 90% of the energy used in a laundry wash cycle is used in heating the water? Try using only cold water as save 90% of the cost of doing a load of wash!