Gas and Oil

At lunch today, while I was pedaling away on the stationery recumbent bike at the gym (something I have long been neglecting to do), I read a very interesting and sobering article in the June 2008 issue of National Geographic. "Tapped Out," by Paul Roberts. The entire article is worth a read, and surprisingly, you can read it online without being a subscriber.

Mr. Roberts notes that oil output is beginning to plateau just as global demand is skyrocketing. He states unequivocally: "The era of cheap oil is behind us." As gas prices here have soared into the stratosphere, that has been my feeling as well. It's a nagging feeling, especially when I consider that my 2006 Toyota Sienna, which I dearly love, but which gets only about 18 mpg around town, is nowhere close to paid for, yet I can't afford to drive it. My hubby is now biking the 2 miles each way to work (which, quite honestly, he should have been doing for a long time now) and I am driving his more-efficient 2005 Scion xB, which gets about 26 mpg around town.

This quote from the article is especially chilling:

For decades oil geologists have theorized that when half the world's original endowment of oil has been extracted, getting more out of the ground each year will become increasingly difficult, and eventually impossible. Global output, which has risen steadily from fewer than a million barrels a day in 1900 to around 85 million barrels today, will essentially stall. Ready or not, we will face a post-oil future—a future that could be marked by recession and even war, as the United States and other big oil importers jockey for access to secure oil resources.

So, it's time for all of us to do something--even if it's something little. In a future post, I'll tell you what we are doing aside from parking the Sienna whenever we can, to help cut down on our consumption of gas and oil. I'll close this post with another quote from the article:

Fuel-efficient cars and alternatives such as biofuels will compensate for some of the depleted oil supplies, but the bigger challenge may be inducing oil-hungry societies to curb demand. Any meaningful discussion about changes in our energy-intensive lifestyles, says Husseini [a Saudi oil geologist quoted extensively throughout the article], "is still off the table." With the inexorable arithmetic of oil depletion, it may not stay off the table much longer.

Sorry to be the harbinger of such gloom today, but it's been on my mind, and it's worth us all thinking about it. And, that's what this blog is all about!