Daily Oil Blog

                       
Remember the days our great grandparents used to move around the country without cars and buses.Horse carriages used to be the norm and time seems to be slower..will we swing back to that era without fossil power?

Yes and No…animals are always part of human ecosystem since the beginning of time.However with the advent of cheap energy, we’ve grown apart from the horses and bulls that’s been used for transportation. Nevertheless I do not forsee the return of cowboy age ..merely the fusion and better usage of our horsepower.

Renewable technonolgy plus animal power seems to be a more probable scenerio ,trains and buses that use clean energy will be back in a big way as the public give up their hummers for cycling shorter distances.Horse carriages may be the gap between trains and bicycles.

In Cuba we can see good examples of public transportation and goods carriers using both trucks and bullcarts. They’ve survived decades of energy embargoes and make good case studies of using our existing energy platform.But theirs is a crude way of managing peak oil environment due to politics and economics.Most countries will need to find their own paths and will do better than Cuba I believe as the populace is more creative and knowledge intensive.

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Israel troubled relations in Middle east with her neighbours will not be plain sailing given her lack of oil and energy embargoes from her arab neighbours.

Negev which is the southern desert of israel can turn solar energy into a renewable powerhouse in the sparesly inhabited region.14 hour sun days and 360 summer per year testify this making Defence minister Eliezer positive about the trend away from fossil fuel.

The minister predicted in less than a few decades , oil and natural gas will disappear worldwide and Israel will be on top of the renewable agenda.In 2020, no more fossil energy will be used in the holy land so he cited.

Israel will do well to collaborate in renewable energy research and funding with her arab neighbours whose oil wealth can be served to make a successful crossover to the peak oil era.Much can be gained on either sides if politics can be put aside for the betterment of their own people,

Personally I’m skeptical about Israel completely weaning off from fossil energy, no country even USA with her high tech capabilities can do it alone.It takes worldwide concerted efforts and making changes in lifestyle to make the leap.And time is running out as we speak.

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As you can see, I’ve just installed a statscounter on my right hand sidebar to keep track of my site carbon emission and also offsetting it at the same time.

It’s pretty neat and fit into my blog nicely:)

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The Arab horse gallops fast.

The camel plods slowly, but it goes by day and night.

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After working a few days outdoors doing pruning and clearing the weeds, I came to realise how good the modernites are having being sheltered from the weather and natural calamaties that has befallen to our forefathers before Oil age.

More people has been working indoors as rural folks flooded the streets paved with vehicles a century back.And since then we never look back even looking down our rural cousins as inferior and uncultured.Forgetting they’ve been supplying city folks ample food during pre car era.

Severe drought and heavy monsoon can sweep away many months of backbreaking work done by farmers and even now we’re still facing the same problems for peasants who cannot afford the good farm site and technology to combat it. How we going to employ the technology to increase food production without oil with our limited good arable land?

Many of us will just need to learn to cope with a lower standard of living unlike the conspicous consumerism we experienced supported by petro infrastructure that was not meant to last forever…sooner or later..the drip will be lesser and more difficult to drill.

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Yesterday I started my new job as a landscape worker, this is to bring in some income as this blog is in red, meaning no income:) ,life is always are filled with surprises .This new job exposed me to the nature unlike my previous jobs which I think may come in handy in a Peak Oil world.

As I’m writing this, my back is aching and trying to get over the heat in humid singapore. I think farming in our urban environment may not be a far fetch thing as food becomes more scarce and expensive but the problem is farming enough food for all city dwellers.Car parks and other commercial lands has to be put into use in that direction but no all lands can be converted to arable farming.

Globalization has widened the income between the rich and poor and many foreign workers has come to our shore to eke a living as singapore flung her doors wide open to unskilled and skilled workers.Having come into contact with them in my landscaping job, I’ve come to learn that these workers are industrious and able to take hardships unlike developed city slickers like me:(

Living in a peak oil world will not be a huge problem from this workers coming from rural areas in India, they may even teach us a thing or two about simple living.Give them a shovel and they can work under the hot sun without complaints.

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