Emilie+Chien+-+the+World+without+OIl

Is our world already passed the peak of the oil resources? Personally, I believe the answer for that is a definitely yes. Since nowadays people are more concerned about finding an alternative resource as a substitute of oil ad the prices of oil has increased significantly during the summer of ear 2008. Even though recently, the prices have decreased but the prices are slowly going up, from $ 37-a-barrel to $51 a barrel (according to http://hubpages.com/hub/Oil-Prices-Will-Reach-250-In-2009). Besides the changes in prices of oil, many countries have cut back its grain production(corn, soybean) in order to produce more oil. If the world is not running out of oil, why countries do that ( find alternative sources to produce more oil)? All those signs tell us that we might need to cut back or consumption of oil and develop a new living style that does not rely heavily on oil. If not, we will face a very serious problem! How do we analyze the oil prospect? How do we know when is the peak of oil consumption? According to Plan B 3.0, we can either use “computer models to project future oil production and prices or we can uses the reserves/production relationship to gain a sense of future production trends.

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There are some skills that people develop during the pre-peak stage where there is enough amount of oil for people to consume. These skills are listed below. 1/ skills to take plane 2/ know how to drive in order to travel and ship foods and products around. 3/know how to drive, how to refill the oil into cars in gas station. 4/ develops skills, technology to epurate oil and turn it into our daily life demanded products (Ex: clothes, shoes) 5/ know how to make bituminous macadam On the other hand, when the world is running our of oil, people need to develops a new life style and change their behavior that enable them to continue to survive. In the post-peak stage, several important skills that are needed to survive are listed below. 1/know how to ride a bike 2/ able to grow your own foods ( to be a farmer) 3/ able to swim ( so you can travel without driving cars?!) 4/able to not sea sick 5/ able to know how to operate a boat ( so you can travel without driving) 6/ able to use solar energy, wind energy to substitute oil away 7/ need to use more cotton,…so manybe know how to grow cotton? 8/able to sew your oen clothes, shoes, etc (since some of our clothes are made from petroleum. and they will disappear once the world has shortage of oil) 9/ able to use wheel for ceramic making & how to fire them by using the kiln ( to make your own container, pots,etc) 10/ use the fibers in vegetables or plants to make clothes 11/ know how to recycle and not waste things In my opinion, even if the one day the world really runs of oil, there will still be some substitute for oil. Moreover, the technology will be so advanced that people do not need to go out. They can just stay at home and go on internet and live in a very realistic 3D network environment. In this 3D network, even though it is unrealistic, but everything you see you touch, you feel is very realistic. Therefore, without driving cars or taking plane, people can travel around the world in the 3 D network and still get the same satisfaction ( it is just like they really have been to the places) But before we are able to do that, we need to develop a way to make the computer that does not contain any petroleum in it. Before this assignment, i ahve never though about what my life would be without oil. However, after noticing that most goods that we used daily are made from petroleum, I begin to think seriously about what my life would be without oil. Do not need to Drive? Use ginger as shampoo? Stay at home everyday?( i like that actuallly!) Still, i cannot imagine what would happen if it really happened!

Also, another interesting question appears in my mind when i was having a "world without oil " conversation with my friends. If the world is running our of oil, are we developing backwards instead forwards? Will we live back in time where the oil had not discovered yet or moving towards a more "green" century?