Will Peak Oil reduce the population and save the planet from Global warming?

Question

I've been studying peak oil for over 6 months now. We are at peak oil now 86 million barells/day consumed, 86.5 million/day produced. Next year consumption will outpace production by approx 2% and will continue to grow each year. Oil will begin to rapidly go up in price because speculators, investors, and oil companies will officially now there is no additional, affordable oil to get at to keep up with consumption. If peak oil is reached midway through next year, and we begin the descent, we have approx. 4 years before a total social-economic collapse. How many people do you think will survive? It takes the world's oil and money markets to keep 6.7 billion people alive. Experts believe we counldn't sustain 500 million on the planet without oil. What happens when money is worth NOTHING! Will people be fleeing into the rural lands and holding up on their properties, protecting their gardens and lands with weapons? Will this happen soon and save the planet from global warming?

Answer 1

Maybe. It might not reduce the population, and if increased use of coal replaces oil then it won't stop global warming either. But much later, when coal runs out, then global warming will stop. Or at least the increase of it.

Answer 2

Funny...we're finding more and more oil in the ground every day.  We have the resources to tap them.  We have the capacity to expand our refining facilities.  Means we can produce more.  Government restrictions have capped production, not supply.  That's not "peak oil", it's government intrusion.

Since oil is the lifeblood of the industrial age, a failure in the government restricted supply lines would bring our entire economy to a standstill.  The resultant starvation and bloodshed would certainly reduce the world population.

If man were wiped completely from the planet, the Earth's climate would continue its trend unaffected.  The Sun determines Earth's temperature.  Take the five minutes needed to review solar activity history versus known historic climate change.  Might as well toss the US Constitution to close the nearest black hole...we'd have just as much effect.

Answer 3

We have survived without oil before.  It will come down to the lazy will die and those who will work will live...simple as that

Answer 4

I agree that we will soon reach peak oil, if we haven't already. It will not necessarily save us for global warming unless we also soon reach peak coal, but if you believe David Rutledge, Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech, we will reach that rather quickly too.  I don't agree that we have 4 years before social-economic collapse, or that the population will immediately decrease. As the price for fossil fuels rise alternatives will become more cost-effective and replace much of the shortfall. As Randall unintentionally points out, we reached peak whale oil a long time ago but that didn't result in any collapse of civilization.

Answer 5

Nothing will prevent our Earth from Climate Change (Global Warming!)  Global Warming is a normal cycle that the Earth goes through every now and then.  There have been tens of thousands of Global Warmings in our past!  This one is no different!  

With or without any human beings being on Earth - Global Warming will take place!   Global Warming is going on on Mars right now and there are no Suv's or even Republicans there to cause it!

Oil is expensive because of scarcity!  More oil drilling off the coasts of the US, more drilling in Alaska will bring the price of oil down again and make our food and transportation cheaper!

Answer 6

there is no man-made global warming, and there is no 'peak oil'.  Stop reading those leftist papers.

We've been in a cooling trend for the last 10 years, you need to get better sources of information!

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?F...

http://www.petitionproject.org/

http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm

Answer 7

There is oil left (Africa )and other sources of power.

Answer 8

Better start building those Nuclear power plants right now------ say about 30 per year for 20 years.

Answer 9

Without oil, without coal, we may mostly need hands to do the work of producing food. Mankind is actually capable of going out into the fields and doing everything needed to feed ourselves. We may not be able to keep mighty cities running, and it may be necessary to redistribute population so that we can look after our crops without traveling long distances to do the work.

But there still might be some starvation.

Answer 10

the greeny`s have all the answers, just no money

Answer 11

i've thought of this myself, and since oil has gone up in price alot we are looking for alternatives such as biofuel which makes food prices rise in poorer countrys thus cuasing starvation lowering population and demand as there are less people this also slightly decreases demand for oil

and if we're using biofuel and other low emmision fuels we lesson the effects of global warming

poorer countrys will suffer the most

Answer 12

No one can say exactly what will happen, but there are a few things that are for sure.  One of those things is that for sure is that this planet cannot sustain the number of people currently living here.  There will probably be a lot of starvation as well as a lot of suicide.  Also, I don't know if it will save the planet from global warming.  That sort of depends on how far we push the planet.  Even if we stopped putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere right now and stopped cutting down trees, the planet would still continue to warm a significant amount for some time.  Whether or not catastrophe could be avoided when oil runs out is uncertain.

Answer 13

NO

Answer 14

No.

I wonder, if you had lived in the early 1800s, would you have written newspaper articles about "peak whale oil?"

http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/sgaudin/c...

http://www.juliansimon.com/

Answer 15

No. The whole "Peak Oil" business is a myth--we have plenty of oil (unfortunately).

What will save us is something the various crackpots-from conspiracy theorists to "peak oil" chicken littles to the kooky "skeptics" do not understand--science and technology.

Its really very simple--to any educated person.  We simply phase out existing fossil fuel technology over a period of time and phase in alternative technology. Most of the necessary technology already exists and what we need in addition is achievable and welll into the developmental process.

The problem with these people is they have absolutely no imagination. They simply can't seem to grasp the idea that something other than the cars and coal plants they grew up with is possible--much less that the alternatives can do the same work and provide the same benefits, only better.

Pathetic, really.  You have to wonder what went wrong as they grew up to so stunt their imagination.