Reply #20: Well, it may not be a gradual tanking [View All]

Cantarell in Mexico and the North Sea off Norway are declining at 15-25%/year, which is outright collapse. Based on info compiled at The Oil Drum, Saudi Arabia may be declining at 8%/yr already. It will generate a full-blown 2nd Great Depression if this is true and continues at this rate.

As some have pointed out on the E/E board here, there will be a strong push to simply liquefy coal into oil instead to support our habit, and to expand Alberta oil sands mining. This would not be a good thing.

The other bad thing is that we are now dependent on oil to grow our food. Oil supplies decline, and food production falls. The current population of 6.5 billion is far above the planet's carrying capacity if oil production begins to falter badly, and we could expect to see Darwin's phrase "nature red in tooth and claw" come into effect by mid-century.