Industry

A look into when we will run out of oil, and what an oil diprives world will look like. By: David L. Goodstein

Importance

This book, Out Of Gas: The End Of The Age Of Oil , talks scientificly about what will hapend when we run out of oil. The author takes a strong stance on world oil usage, and says that we will be unable to quickly switch to another form of energy when we need to. Early on, the author goes through numurous reaserch materials and helps prove that the transition from oil will not be easy, and that oil demand will shortly exceed the production capacity of the world oil suppliers. This information is vital, because there is no conseivable way that we will be able to sustain humanity for much longer withought switching to renewable energy sources. There are many people who are fighting against the switch to other energey forms. I would invite them to read this book and then attempt to justify their beleifs. The fact of the matter is that we are running out of feul, and most people don't even know it. The importance of this book is to inform the pubic, so that humans can adapt to the changing world.

36% of US power is generated from petrolium, and 27% is generated from gas, while gas production is high it is not nearly enough to relieve our dependency on oil. The author, Goodstein, also talks about the fact that without oil most of the world would be imobalized, and thus cripling the global economy. Without adaptation, we will run out of oil; we will be unprepared.

half of the world oil has been used, and the peak of oil usage is expected to occur within this century. Once we hit that peak, demand will excceed supply, causing big problems down the road. Goodstein says that to help get out of our current predicament, we need to persue every possible option. This means looking into clean coal, as well as solar and wind farms, and hydroelectric plants. Any power source will have a better outcome than the ever looming end of the petrolium era.

History

Oil has been around for thousands of years, but in the 1800's scientists figured out how to turn crude oil into cleaner oil. It took fify years of trial and error to find a way to change crude oil into gas. This clean(er) oil was then used to fire lamps and heat homes. Today, however, it is used for cars and energy, and quite excessively.

Petrolium use first took off with the invention of the combustion engine. By the 1900s millions of barrels of crude oil were being pumped out of the ground each year to please global demand. As deman for oil grew, so did production of oil. Oil production has continued to grow each year, but it is getting cloer to the Hubert's peak. Hubert's peak is when 50% of a non renewable reasorces is used.

The book examines what the world will look like when we start to run out of oil. One of Goodstein's major points is that we will not be able to switch to a new means of energy production easily/quickly and this will cause problems. In the transition from oil to another form of energy, he says that, unless something changes, civilization will come to and end.

Big Idea

Goodstein's thesis is that once we hit peak oil, the world will fall into disarray. He takes a fairly morbid point of view, as he does not believe thta humans will have the ability to change. He suggests that we all use less oil to expend the time it takes to hit the peak. Goodstien writes that if we ran out of oil too fast we might have to revert to coal, and then talks about how that would be devistating to the world, "the greenhouse effect that results eventually tips Earth's climate into a new state hostile to life." He then purposes a best case senero were everything is run off of methane until we can bridge the gap into solar production. Either way, Goodstien decleared, "this is the century in which we must learn to live without fossil fuels." The author backs up these claims using reaserch papers in fields ranging from thermodynamics to electromagnetism to geology. The book is told from third point of view, giving the author an omniscient voice in the book. He covers all aspects of society to the best of his ability. This point of view, however, leaves out the fact that humans are very resiliant, and when we need to, we can get things done incredibly fast. The book is told from the opinion of a schoolar, so it leaves out some non-logicle points of view. The author is considered to be one of the formost authorities on the world running out of oil.

I agree in part with Goodstein's theory, but not wholly. Humans need to change, there is no doubt about it. If we do not lessen our dependency on fossil fuels and begin using renewable resources, our society will not survive the peak. However, I don't agree with the authors stance that there is little to nothing we can do to change. I believe that, when pressed, humans will come together to begin the change, and our society will be stronger for it.

Take Away

The take away from this book is that the future, in terms of petroilium, is very grim. And humans need to look back on their past actions and relize that if we continue to take the earth for granted, there will be nothing left. OUr planet is not a renewable resource, but it has the capacity to be. The only thing stopping it is us, we haven't taken the initiative to implement solar and wind farms, hydroelectric plants, or other forms of renewable energy. Some places are farther along this path than others. Germany, for example, uses 80% renewable resoucrces to power the country. America, on the other hand, uses a mere 12%. Simple changes in our everyday lives, such as adding solar panels to people's roofs, would greatly increase the renewable energy usage in our country. If you were to take anything away from this book it should be the fact that we are closely approaching the "peak" of oil usage, and that we must transition to renewable resources if our society wants to continue to thrive.

Cool Stuff

Oil Usage Graphic: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/jun/09/bp-energy-statistics-consumption-reserves-energy

David Goodstein Speach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vLZr09kD34

Info Graphic: http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2011/10/19/us-oil-consumption-infographic.html

Reviews: http://www.amazon.com/Out-Gas-The-End-Age/dp/product-description/0393326470/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books

Bibilography

"Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 May 2014. Web. 15 May 2014.

"History of Petroleum." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Nov. 2014. Web. 14 May 2014.

"David Goodstein." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 05 Nov. 2014. Web. 15 May 2014.

Goodstein, David L. Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Print.

"Bootstrap." Bootstrap. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 May 2014. [Framework for the website]

"Professor David Goodstein Talks about "Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil"" YouTube. YouTube, 26 Apr. 2011. Web. 15 May 2014.

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Alex Pelletier Ap Human Geography Period 5 May 2014