Nigel 
October 2nd,2009
Are oil supplies going to drop soon? Does it matter?
Do you ever see the latest news and feel sick with dread? Do you see the glass as not just half empty but also leaking fast?
Here’s just one possible concern:how much oil have we got left? Has production peaked,meaning we’ll never again have so much available? Are private cars and foreign holidays shortly to become extinct for all but the very rich? If so,does it really matter? After all,if we keep burning oil at anything like the present rate it looks like we’ll change climates,increase extreme weather (like hurricanes,tornadoes and flooding) and reduce land area round the world. (There’s a related post I wrote in July here. It’s called ‘Environmental Confusion’.)
So are we running out of oil? A number of people have produced convincing evidence we are. To redress the balance Michael Lynch has written an intelligent and straightforward article for The New York Times. He called it ‘Peak Oil Is a Waste of Energy’and you can find it here. The article is dated 24 August 2009.
Of course Lynch is focussing that article on the oil supply debate. If we accept his reasoning then we need not worry for some decades at least that oil might run out. We just need to worry about global warming,pollution,and so on.
I used to get really panicked by this sort of thing. Now there’s other stuff I add to the mix,and it helps:
There’s the historical perspective
From the start our human race has faced catastrophes. By and large societies have survived them –although some have disappeared. The difference now is that the problems are working on a world-wide scale. This means able people throughout the world are working on them. There will be change and some aspects of the change will be unpleasant,but that has been true throughout our history.
Change focus
We tend to focus on what we can see and hear and touch. Actually we tend to focus on ourselves,and a bit on our families. Well,I do. Part of depression is a withdrawal from life and an obsession with just our one person. This of course makes us feel worse. What I find helps is to get my focus right. I’m no one special. It’s time I started caring about the people round me more and fussing less about my own relatively trivial problems. Yes I know,easier said than done. Give it a try. Work at it whenever you can (which may not be often but that’s fine). Seeing everyone else as equally important,and doing stuff to benefit them without looking for any return:believe me,it changes how you feel,and for the better.
Get the facts
For a novel set in the near future I read many books on environmental problems,how societies collapse,and so on. Much of it made me feel pretty negative and worried. But. That only lasted for a few months. I kept going and found that once I’d taken the pessimistic stuff on board I actually felt more relaxed about it all. I guess I went through the sequence of emotions often experienced by people who are told they are dying:denial,anger,bargaining,depression,and finally acceptance. (There’s a Wikipedia article on that here.)
Live today
We’re built so we can only experience life and the world in the present. Let’s do just that. Making plans for the future based on available information is wise. Spending the present worrying about what might or might not happen is not. We have right now to live our lives and as Ghandi said:there is no dress rehearsal,today is a day in our lives. Let’s enjoy the colours and freshness of spring when it’s spring,the beauty of a sunrise when the sun is rising,the tastes and textures of each meal as we eat it. Let’s get on with being a valued part of the human race right now,do what good we can while we’re here.
Go for it.
