There’s been a ton of talk and such about the oil spill. Most of it has been posturing and government saying “We’re doing something” when, in reality, the government has no control over the source of the spill. There are questions and I am sure there will be answers. But Rachel Maddow (someone with whom I do not agree with politically) had this to say about Obama’s address to the nation. It’s long (winded) and I mostly agree with point #2, but point #3 is way out there. She proclaims that “the age of oil is over”.
I can only assume that she then left the studio on a unicorn and rode through Fairyland to get home, where her house runs on a clean, reliable fusion reactor.
So, back to reality here. The “age of oil” isn’t over. Oddly enough, John Stewart gives us a history lesson here and basically proves it’s not over. But he doesn’t answer the “why”. Hence, my post here and this odd section (which I promises relates).
Did you go to the grocery store this week? I’m sure you did. I know of nobody in America who doesn’t. Sooner or later, everyone goes. Now, let me ask you something strange: Did you worry that the store would be out of stock? I’m not talking about you variety of cereal here, mind you, I’m talking about bare shelves. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? Now let me ask you this: where does your store get its stock from? Most likely, it was aggregated into a distribution center from various sources.
How did the distribution center get the stock to your store? If you said trucks, give yourself a pat on the back.
Trucks run on oil. Trains run on oil (except for light rail and subway commuter lines). Planes run on oil. Your car also runs on oil. To sum it all up, America has a pretty extensive infrastructure that is run on oil. If the age of oil is over we’re all screwed. Even Miss Maddow. Hardees had, for a while, a slogan of, “Without us, some guys would starve.”
Without oil, you WILL starve.
I’ve been through hurricanes where people run on stores for some supplies. I’ve seen earthquakes turn people into scavengers. And I saw the Louisiana Wal-Mart that was stripped nearly to the bare wall after Katrina by looters. When you lose that infrastructure, hard times come within days. Lose a few roads or the ability to run trucks to an area and see how well you fare.
Odds are you know nothing about crops, livestock, etc. You don’t worry about your next meal because you make money and people who handle those things will gladly sell to you. It’s likely that these people live nowhere near you, hence the need for logistics.
This brings us to an important point. Obama is talking about “green energy” like windmills and solar. But those technologies cannot replace oil because they are methods of generating electricity. In fact, nothing right now can. Ethanol requires far too much land and would price virtually everyone around the world out of corn. Hydrogen is not efficient to extract. Natural gas has it’s own issues. None of them have enough market demand to replace the existing oil infrastructure.
So, like it or not, the age of oil isn’t gone. Not unless you don’t need anything delivered to you anytime soon…
