You have no doubt heard the classical paradox of the immovable object and the irresistible force. While I am not so sure that either naturally exists, it does seem that the appealing idea of infinite economic expansion is pressing up against the outer boundaries of a finite base of resources, particularly oil, these days.
Fortunately for us we are an unusually inventive and adaptive species. At the point that we realize that we’re on the other side of the peak – whenever that may be – and that we are on our way to exhausting the supply of petroleum, our powers of creativity will be put to the test of the ages.
Virtually everything in the current world economy relates to or depends upon petroleum, either directly or indirectly. Take a car for instance. Most people think of oil as relating to the engine oil and the fuel, but many gallons of oil are used to produce the tires, plastics, paints, carpets directly and many more by the industries that transport and transform raw materials, like metals, into batteries, engines and chassis.
Even our food system now that it has been industrialized is utterly dependent upon the regular and unrestricted flow of oil. Pesticides are produced in large measure from petroleum. The machines used to prepare the soil, plant the seeds, spray the fertilizers and harvest the crops are all made and fueled by oil. Food is typically packaged in petroleum-based materials made by industrial equipment that runs on oil and is in turn made by industries that use oil to fuel their machines and deliver their raw materials. Then there are the countless miles that food is now transported from where it grew, to where it was processed, to the distribution centers, to the stores and to your table.
Oil, oil everywhere.
Each one is wise to educate himself on the matter, to weigh the facts and act accordingly.
Gregory Hake 
Pingback: Providence » Blog Archive » Boldness, Providence and Magic | Gregg Hake's Blog
That state of imbalance you indicated, can also be seen in most area’s of human function.
Where countless millions of dollars in natural resource’s are destroyed each year because of wastefulness and thoughtlessness. It is certainly wise to make the most of what substance is available at any given point, and maby even generate more through such wise use, reuse, or recycling.
Thanks for this great food for thought today, I’ll certainly seek to thoughtfully engage in redefining this in my living.
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At some point the continuing use of oil will become untenable, at least if we continue down the path we are going. The question is whether we can either become more efficient with the oil that we have, or move to some more renewable type of resource (which is much more difficult to do than most people realize, by the way). Barring that, we are going to have some major societal issues that will far transcend the current environmental issues with the use of oil. Hopefully we can avoid that, but we have to be willing to recognize the problem for what it is and honestly look for a solution without political posturing and lobbying for the status quo.
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Thank you – very interesting overview of the oil industry.
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We are an adaptable species, but normally it relates to necessity where the rest of the time, it ends up being mediocrity. Your words are food for thought to consider the larger picture of continuing to educate ourselves, to grow and to have a balanced and forward thinking view in all that we do.
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Appreciate your daily food for thought and encouragement to think more and extrapolate on your starting points in our living.
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Wow I wasn’t aware of all those connections. Thanks for enlightening. We already have been looking to buy produce and meats from local sources as much as possible because it just makes more sense.
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In addition to being incredibly dependent on oil, clean water may be our next crisis. In some parts of the world that is already a daily reality. The way we operate as “Earthlings” is scandalous we have not created a sustainable model, anywhere. It looks to me that we will pay the price or we can start to educate ourselves and begin to live responsibly and creatively like there will be a tomorrow.
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