What if? What if oil ran out tomorrow?

[lofthouse31]

i agree eric that there will be upheavals, that is a certainty of the human condition, i can only speak from my own perspective, but i can feed myself, clothe myself, heal myself(within reason), defend myself physical.
I can navigate, get from a to b under my own steam, provide my own heat and shelter, make the things i need, and a multitude of other things.

I have read a lot of your posts eric and im guessing you know more on the above than me,
Whatever the world throws at us it doesnt matter, unless we have a mega brainwave at some point to change or prevent the aforementioned scenarios they may or may not happen.

We are not immortal, but we are equiped to deal with the worst the world throws at us, others are less fortunate but thats really not my problem.


all we can do is look after ourselfs and our immediate circles.

But at the end of the day life carries on, we are prepared

 

[rik_uk3]

If some event took away petrol, electricity etc overnight, the prospect off a city size population heading for the hills is frightning. However, how far could they walk on foot without food and good water before they stopped in their tracks? Do you think the powers that be would let them leave? It would be very easy for the government to take out the food chain and stop the hoards, poison the rivers, infect live stock, game and the like would do this.

Bushcraft skills on your own would not do you much good long term in this country. Anybody thinking they can live off the land in the UK 24/7 is day dreaming. You would need to be part of an organised group/society to share skills, farm, teach and survive.

I have access to my own water supply, and am surrounded by woodland, but as for food I doubt I could last six months. Not much in the way of crops grown near me that I could raid, but there are a lot of sheep and bunnies; I would need to learn to farm quick and be in a group for long term survival

 

[traderran]

Maybe I should have phrased my question a little bit different. I think that we could argue whether or not oil will run out for years or until at least until the day that it finally does run out anyway.

So how about this. Let me rephrase the question.

What would you do if the price of oil becomes so expensive that you could no longer afford it? In other words, oil, and all of the beneficial products derived from it, i.e. electricity, gasoline, plastics, cheap transportation, etc. were no longer within your budget. Since that senerio seems more plausible then the world immediately running dry. How would you cope? What bushcraft skills do you think you could employ to help?

I was going to stay out off this. But since you are a fellow American. If the gas went to 20.00 gal. I would just go back to the old ways Horse and buggy to get around. As I already have the horses and a good buggy This would be no problem to me. and most
of my neighbors as we do this for fun now. The land that I have now is the same land that my
forefathers lived on and they made out all right. Also I already use some solar and wind
power to make electricity. So I would just lock the gates and go from there we grow most of the produce that we use already what we can't grow we could trade beef for or do without I reload for all my rifles an pistols already so ammo would not be a problem.
Io get right down to it we are pretty self sufficient now.

 

[Dave]

I occasionally do some consulting work for companies that provide analytical equipment into the Oil refineries, Rigs, FPSO etc. Some of these companies have clients including the likes of Saudi Aramco, [aramco=ARabian AMerican CO] mentioned above. Sabic, etc
The research we did a few years ago led me to the conclusion that the 'Petroleum molecule' as well as being the 'solution', is the cause of most of the worlds problems. Ecologically and Financially. [Its a dirty business]
What will replace it? Bio fuels. The rape of the rainforest. Massive destruction of habitat and species. Extinction. Massive palm oil plantations in countries like Brazil.
If thats the price, we should learn to live without it. Of course, as human beings, we wont do until its too late.
Bring on the revolution!

 

[Tourist]

Bring on the revolution!

I don't think it'll be a revolution, but I think something will happen.........but, thats just my own personal conspiracy theory.

 

[twisted firestarter]

There's a good book about biofuel called 'From the Fryer to the fuel tank' by Joshua Tickell.

A surprising candidate which doesn't deplete oil reserves or strip the rainforests is Algae!

One of the major benefits is that it grows so damn fast that it needs far less space

than a traditional oil crop. I have heard of people growing it in polytunnels!

Here's what Wiki says about algae as biofuel...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algaculture#Algae_as_an_energy_source

 

[lofthouse31]

we will have to take a peek at the past, the age of steam, the industrial revoloution, great horse drawn barges,the sail and coal driven boats of years past,in roman days very large machine driven processes were undertaken without a drop of power, often simply with beasts of burden turning a wheel. water and wind turning wheels to grind flour, the earths exploding population is the only problem that i can not see that the earth can provide a cure for. history is full of answers to most problems.
bio fuels are a mistake in my humble opinion grain is for eating.
But the petrol companies have chosen that route because after all when petrol is finished they are finished if they dont provide an alternative.
I once read that the viaducts and aquaducts of ancient rome carried three times the volume of water into the city than is currently supplied to modern day new york.
They used simple physics and gravity, not a drop of power.
Every garden in this country has the ability to produce a wealth of food, if space put in a few chickens, eggs, meat, stock, manure and garbage disposal in one.
In modern day india a lot of farmers have pits under there houses where bodily and animal waste go and in a simple but ingeious way are used to provide free methane gas, a car as we know can run on methane.
How much methane could the sewers of london produce if an effort was made to do so.
We can have nuclear power stations like in france ( theres pros and pluses to that but i think thats best for another thread).
Obviously if oil ran out completly at six am tommorow it would be chaos, but at the minuite its thimble emptying a barrel, sure it will run out, but we will have notice before hand.
If we can arrange things in the interim there should be too many problems, but dont rely on the politicians, they are worthless, start with your own back garden and then your street then freinds and relatives, refuse to buy bio fuel, grow food, rear animals if you can, plant things to eat in hedge rows ( i do this all the time, dont know if its legal but my bellie is never empty) ive planted pear trees goosberry bushes, blackberrys, cherries, spuds, rhubarb, herbs etc all in common land and hedgerow.
Nature gets its share, the birds get more berries than me, some pass the seeds later on and my work may benifit other areas. in five years you me be picking berrys related to my bushes hundreds of miles from where i live, i hope so anyway.

Well i have ranted on and i hope it made some sence ( my command of english and grammar is horrendous soz, mispent youth)

Its down to us to dictate to them at the end of the day, and not let ourselfs be dictated to and trodden on,
Prepare for the worst by all means but not at the expense of trying to prevent it,
Hope ive made some sence.

 

[Big Geordie]

As usual I find myself agreeing with Eric. And from my memory of being a police officer and then in the TA, I am fairly confident in saying that as the resources diminish, the plans will be put into effect which restrict movement. You would need to move house before the crisis arrived and have the papers to prove it.

People wont be allowed to capture resources for themselves, they will have already been commandeered or at least guarded. Probably earmarked for so called important people. Its not so long ago that people were shocked to discover that there were lists of councillors etc. who would be protected in nuclear shelters unlike the rest of us.

Remember Cal & Tourist, If we are talking about this now, a think tank will have laid plans down 30 years ago.

G.

ps: How about "eat your neighbour "recipes?? :tapedshut

 

[John Fenna]

Ah - we will all be thrown onto our own resources!
Travelling gangs of city dwellers invading the countryside to loot food, armed men roaming the country taking what they will, peasants grovelling in fields to produce starvation level crops...
Has anyone read Terry Nations Survivor and Genesis of a Hero?

All a bit medieaval realy - beware ergot poisoning! - and the population dropped dramatically in a downward spiral of "lack of power = lack of food = disease = death = lack of resource = lack of power" when the established culture fell apart due to "the system" failing (then it was poor weather and disease destroyed the natural power resource - man power).
Self sufficiency would be the only answer, but this is a pipe dream with our huge population.....
It seems that even the great John Seymore could only make Self Sufficiency work by producing a best selling book and running courses (just along the road from me) to raise cash....
We are all doomed!
I am keeping a sharp eye out, and a wary knife handy (?) for the apocalypse!

 

[twisted firestarter]

in todays paper...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2196435,00.html

 

[lofthouse31]

in todays paper...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2196435,00.html

Good post firestarter,
It said in the article that there was about forty years petrol at the current rate of consumption, but lets say we half that, because consumption will most likely rise, then that gives us twenty years.
If we dont work to sort the situation out by then, and its down to all of us, the worst case scenario is exactly what we will deserve, the soloutions are out there, we have to put them and force them to be put into practice, or when all these doomsday scenarios pan out we will feel pretty stupid we did nothing to prevent it.

 

[lofthouse31]

Theres always cannibalism i suppose, i can think of a few of my neighbours i wouldnt mind chopping up and adding to the pot if things got desperate, just give me that excuse lol.
(oops did i think that out loud)

 

[madrussian]

Theres always cannibalism i suppose

I'd rather eat grass.

 

[Eric_Methven]

I'd rather eat grass.

I'd rather smoke grass, put all the world's problems in a bubble and just blow it away.

Eric

 

[lofthouse31]

I'd rather smoke grass, put all the world's problems in a bubble and just blow it away.

Eric

Thats the best idea ive heard today

 

[Martyn]

Ahwell, look on the bright side, at least it will solve global warming.

 

[Moff8]

I remember a scientist came up with a solution for an oil spill - he grew microbes that fed exclusively on oil. They were short lived but with a huge appetite. The idea being that you could spray the oil spill with the little blighters and they would have a population explosion as they gorged themselves on the oil. Then they would die off as thier life cycle was short and thier food had run out.

I wrote this down as it gave me an idea for a short story based on group of eco-terrorists who used the same procedures as the scientist to create a microbe that was long lived and didn't eat oil exclusively so didn't die out immediatly. Everyone went back to Victorian technology and horse drawn transport. I started the story but never finished it.

this isn't the story I read but it has the same sort of info
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2004/12/66017

 

[Thrym]

heh it has occured to me recently that all this new media hype/ governments sudden interest in global warming theory is kind of just like an atempt to wheen us off of oil. If you think about it the price of everything will go up think of all the fuel used getting food to a supermarket. I'm just making sure not to have any debt as thats definatly something you dont want to have when it happens. In terms of what to have i think a garden of your own and a good sleeping bag would be the most usefull things to have if everything suddenly became expensive.
Josh

 

[Bob the Blacksmith]

A small point worth noting concerning horses. If you use the food a horse eats each year to make biodiesel (rather than feeding the horse) you'll be able to make enough biodiesel to power a tractor which will do 10 times the work of the horse.

 

[commandocal]

Right am packed! Running away to scotland tonight before the Crisis starts! you will see me riding alone the M1 with a horse