by Willow T. Lark
1. How will the depletion of oil affect our financial market?
Oil is currently an American mono-crop, meaning our economy is so inordinately dependent on oil (in comparison to the rest of the world), that for every change of production in the oil market, there is henceforth mass destabilization in America's financial status on the whole. Ever since 1973, when the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) passed an oil embargo, and forestalled most oil harvesting in that general area, oil prices (per barrel) would spike and drop sporadically, thus causing sporadic recessions in the economy, that crawl back to a smoother level. And the most important account we should take in is that most of these recessions occur in correlation to every road block we've hit in the Middle East. Since the "stock-market" crash of 2008, prices have heavily increased from $98/barrel to $128/barrel now! With the U.S.A consumes 18,690,000 barrels/day, you do the math on the required expenditures. As oil depletes from its once abundant climax, the prices of oil will only inflate even more, such to the point that only those who don't progress onto alternative sources, and have the money, will even be able to afford oil. Those capitalists putting in the expenditures for the OPEC cartel to do their job, who are literally solely dependent on oil production, will take the hardest fall when oil has virtually reduced itself to nothing. Yet since our taxes go to these capitalists' pockets, this crisis will inevitably come back to bite us in the crumb-spot as our "mono-crop" goes extinct, and the one source our economy truly depended upon for exportation and importation in turn goes extinct. It'll be the collapse of a nationwide economical ecosystem.
2. How much does the average person spend on oil?
Considering most of oil is in demand for uses of the following: gasoline/diesel for automotive fuel; heating oil; bunker, ship, truck, and jet-line fuel (which also translates to how we import the many barrels of oil, by ship); rubber; plastic; dyes; pesticides; and even photographic film, most of our tax dollars go into funding for the consistent production of oil. Its in high demand, that goes without saying! Most of the common people of America, and even the executive government, hasn't even the slightest say in where all this money goes, for as long as many of these products are in such high demand, the oil needed to produce most of the superfluous commodities of today's American culture will have to be invested in somehow. The average American currently spends approximately $3.84/gallon on just the main usage in which oil contributes to, gasoline. The prices are currently deflating, but as we are exponentially depleting from Peak oil production, oil becomes scarce, and we estimate that gasoline could range from $7-$8/gal in just the duration of over the next ten years!
3. How do we transition our economy from oil?
How, one may ask, would those put oil to use in future circumstances? Since those that prefer oil therefore refuse to progress in our predicament, they still prefer oil based petroleum to fuel their cars, where as most will transition into use of electric cars, harvesting methane gases or utilizing solar power for electricity, or put to use the present commodities: mass transportation. One could start community based transportation, or a city could spend the $13,000 on one large solar-electric generator, to circuit electricity throughout the whole city. Since the oil mostly contributes as a fundamental to form gasoline, automobile companies could untie themselves from OPEC's apron-strings, and find ways to gather investments towards recreating electric cars! Now note all the "coulds" implemented, and then realize that we have the potential to install alternatives, but currently can't yet take initiative, because there is no ready substitute. If we don't do so now, or in the near future, this dormant oil protocol will prove fatal to when we need to protecting our economy.
~Voila! Open for discussion!
USEFUL SOURCES:
http://www.briangordon.ca/2011/05/take-initiative-transition-off-oil/comment-page-1/#comment-9636
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_pro_res_tho_mil_bar-proved-reserves-thousand-million-barrels
http://www.nationmaster.com/red/pie/ene_oil_con_tho_bar_dai-oil-consumption-thousand-barrels-daily
http://www.oil-price.net/en/articles/oil-caused-recession-not-wallstreet.php
http://www.oildepletionprotocol.org/getinformed/faq
http://www.eia.gov/emeu/steo/pub/contents.html
Amazing!
ReplyDeleteWillow that's a very long and descriptive title.
ReplyDelete