Post Peak Oil World

With the rising price of oil dominating the news each night there has been surprisingly little talk of a world without oil. Is it a problem that is just too difficult to contemplate, do we just want to leave it for the next generation, and is it simply a matter of us fearing a possible lowering in living standards?
The author of "Beyond the Oil Peak", Lester R. Brown briefly discusses the issue in an excerpt from his latest book..
The World After Oil Peaks
"In the coming energy transition, there will be winners and losers. Countries that fail to plan ahead, that lag in investing in more oil-efficient technologies and new energy sources, may experience a decline in living standards. The inability of national governments to manage the energy transition could lead to a failure of confidence in leaders and to failed states.
National political leaders seem reluctant to face the coming downturn in oil and to plan for it even though it will almost certainly become one of the great fault lines in the history of civilization. Trends now taken for granted, such as urbanization and globalization, could be reversed almost overnight as oil becomes scarce and costly.
Developing countries will be hit doubly hard as still-expanding populations combine with a shrinking oil supply to steadily reduce oil use per person. Such a decline could quickly translate into a fall in living standards. If the United States, the world’s largest oil consumer and importer, can sharply reduce its use of oil, it can buy the world time for a smoother transition to the post-petroleum era." Read the full article here..

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