Doom, Gloom, and the iPad?

A couple of non-sequiters before I hit you with the depressing stuff:

I heard this on Glenn Beck the other day and it took me a while to verify independently. As everyone but the average contestant on "Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader?" knows Iran used to be called Persia. The people of Persia have long called themselves both Persian and 'eran' or Iran which is the Farsi word for Aryan. Yes, that's the same Aryan that Hitler and the Nazis believed themselves. The Nazis were the ones who encouraged the change and helped nurture the anti-Semitic leanings of Iran that menace us in the form of 'President' Tom today.

Speaking of evil cults; Apple's introduction of the iPad, aside from making the teenager inside me giggle at the name and want to abuse it in connection with feminine hygiene products, made me realize that Apple ownership has become less about the product and more like a cult. Ardent initiates gathered around Steve Jobs to worship at the release of the iPhone and the iPad as if called to prayer. Apple product owners have a nearly religious affiliation with the high priced products (the iPad is essentially Apple's answer to the netbook and is probably going to start at about 3-4X the cost) that don't play well with others. I can understand the desire to appear as part of the counter-culture (since I am a counter-culture unto myself) but latching on to a product like the Apple or Subaru as a symbol of that urge demonstrates a general shallowness rather than genuine like of the product or belief.

THE END IS NEAR
Okay, so that might be a little too dramatic. Those of you who regularly read my diatribes or have them read to you by a co-worker know that I'm not given over to panic. Yes, I rail against injustice and corruption with Apocalyptic fervor but I never panic.

Several weeks ago my attention was returned to something I remember hearing as far back as my days at the University back in 1990. I floated the notion by Mrs. C and brother RC only to be met with monumental indifference. They can hardly be blamed since what I am speaking about has been largely relegated to academic conferences that would put an insomniac in a coma.

I am talking about Peak Oil...yes, yes I can hear your indifference through the Internet. Peak Oil isn't a corporation although it would be a good name. As I said in my last post, a Peak Oil crisis has the potential to cause conditions like those written about in the book of Revelation. It is a forgone certainty that a Peak Oil crisis would trigger anything from a large regional war to a full out world war. But before we get there, I should explain what Peak Oil is exactly.

Peak Oil is the very real fact that at some point the world will reach its maximum oil production ability. Estimates of where this point will be range from it having happened in the 1990s to as far out as 2030. The mid range for it happening tend to fall right around the 2010-2015 time period.

The sources I've researched tend to show that Peak Oil will occur at about the same time we have used half of the world's easily accessible/cheaply recoverable oil reserves but I don't believe the two events are necessarily related. In all likelihood oil production did/is/will expand until 60-75% of world reserves have been used and, like shlucking on a milkshake, we have to work harder to get the rest of it out of the glass. One thing is certain though. We will use the second half of the oil far faster than we used the first half.

Peak Oil itself will, for most of the world, be a non-event. No one is going to be standing over an oil rig to bemoan the fact that we have pulled X% of the oil out of the ground and only the bearded weirdos wearing sandwich boards will be trumpeting the end of the world. Peak Oil will not be a problem for anyone until it reaches a crisis point.

Peak Oil has been all but ignored in the mainstream media and it faces other hurdles working its way into the general psyche of the developed world. Most lay people when confronted with Peak Oil respond that they will accept higher gas prices and travel less but a Peak Oil crisis will cause a lot more disruption to our lives than just that.

Using Oil
How much oil do you think you use in a day? How much do you think oil impacts your life in a day? As Americans we have the highest standards of living in the entire world and those standards require a lot of energy. Following is (at best) a partial list of how oil affects everything we do:

The average American uses just over 1000 gallons of gasoline per year for travel. A barrel of oil produces 20 gallons of gasoline so you use 50 barrels of oil just for travel. That car you are driving required roughly 20 barrels of oil to produce; more than that if you drive a hybrid that uses more exotic metals in the batteries.

The computer you are reading this on used its weight in oil to create.

Producing a one gram microchip uses 630 grams of oil.

Want to telecommute for work? The Internet gobbles huge amounts of oil in order to power the infrastructure that keeps servers cool and electrons surging through the system. It is estimated that right now 10% of the US's power consumption is dedicated to keeping the world wide web up and running. Most of that, especially the further east you go, is created by burning oil and natural gas.

In the US food travels an average of 1500 miles to get to your table. In Canada it travels an average of 5000!

All that food doesn't just happen either. It takes oil to make and power the equipment that allows us to mass produce/harvest food. Imagine how many people it would take just to harvest the Palouse every year without those harvesters. Keep in mind that the US also produces 60% of the world's food.

In addition modern fertilizers are ammonia based and much of that is derived from natural gas.

Everything you use daily is produced using oil. Natural and synthetic fiber clothing; furniture, electronic equipment, books, toilet paper... Everything we touch on a daily basis was likely produced using oil at some point. Even the greenest person can hardly avoid it.

Concrete and asphalt require extensive energy to produce. Asphalt is oil based. One ton of cement requires 45 gallons of oil or 420 pounds of coal to produce.

For those who think there is a panacea in alternative fuels/energy I have bad news. So far all of those sources have oil at their base. Nuclear needs massive amounts of concrete. Wind turbines require a lot of metal - mostly aluminum. Solar cells require more exotic metals and use a lot of oil in their production. It takes almost 18 barrels of oil to get a ton of copper. It takes almost 360 to process a ton of aluminum.

An aluminum plant requires the energy of a city of 175,000 people.

Ethanol is not a replacement. It takes 1.2 barrels of oil to create 1 barrel of ethanol (not including the oil used to grow the corn). Even when you get that, ethanol is only 80% as efficient as oil. Bottom line there is that you get 2/3 of the energy you invested from a barrel of ethanol. That's like spending $1 to make 66 cents. (Makes you think about how the government works.)

The bulk of American houses are heated with oil, natural gas, or electricity created from fossil fuels.

When you tally it all together; virtually every aspect of our lives and economy is based on oil.

Take that with you through the day and as you go through your routine think about what you are doing in relation to how much oil it took for you to do that activity. My next post will continue to look at Peak Oil and how we could be closer to a Peak Oil crisis than you might think.