A TURNING POINT IN HISTORY

By Colin J. Campbell

“Some 300 million people occupied the Planet at the time of Christ and the number only doubled over the next seventeen centuries. People lived on whatever their particular region could support. Their energy came mainly from their own muscles. Then came coal followed by oil and gas which provided new abundant and cheap sources of energy allowing the population to expand ten-fold. Every manufactured item includes embedded energy. But these are finite natural resources formed in the geological past and therefore subject to depletion : for every gallon of oil used, one less remains. Production naturally expands as new finds are made but then passes a peak and declines.

Although critical public information on oil production and discovery is unreliable, the evidence suggests that the peak of world production has now been passed, being accompanied by a surge in prices with adverse economic and financial consequences. A debate rages as to the precise date of peak but misses the point when what matters of the vision of the long decline on the other side of it. It is time to prepare for the Second Half of the Oil Age, which now dawns. The transition is a time of great tension, already characterised by revolts and revolutions around the world. People need to be better informed so that they can understand that the new circumstances are imposed by Nature. They could then react positively to plan their lives to meet what unfolds.

One idea is the Oil Depletion Protocol, a resolution for which has been passed in the Portuguese Parliament. It provides that countries shall cut their consumption to match world depletion rate, currently running at about two percent a year. It would help countries prepare in an orderly manner and lead to a fairer distribution.”

Colin J. Campbell, 15^th of June, 2011.

Colin heads up a ‘not-for-profit’ forum on ‘The New Energy Era’ in Ireland at the end of August, details on www.localcampus.com ,