Oil and its impending doom

The Pipelines of International conflict

This is something that’s been bugging me for a long time. Our energy sources have been controlled by the oil companies for a long time since the 1940’s when electricity had begun to be distributed across the country. Understandably, they could provide energy easily and relatively cheaply back then. Therefore, the oil business became big, they had, and still do have, a large influence over the governments. This is due to the fact that should the oil, natural gas and other fossil fuel sources be shut off by the companies, or even just limited by them, countries affected will have no or limited access to electricity – setting them back to the stone age. Mass power cuts for large amounts of time would be common; shops and schools wouldn’t be able to open because of health and safety risks, roads would be unlit, the internet would be inaccessible and all sources of media would be shut off. How any modern country would be able to cope with this is questionable. So, behind the scenes the big oil companies hold a lot of power over governments. Where governments are in charge of natural resources supplies, such as Russia and its control over the gas pipeline that runs through Northern Europe, about 80% of it all, we’ve already seen the devastation this can cause, when Russia decided to demonstrate its renewed power back in 2006. It shut off the pipeline, causing a lot of trouble for Ukraine for the 4 days. Our need for electricity means that any large sources of it hold a lot of power in the world.


This also means that it is difficult for our government to instate renewable and nuclear fuel sources, in case they cause unrest in the oil companies. If they did not hold such a sway, no doubt we have switched to using nuclear as our main fuel source 10 years ago, before oil prices stared rising at such an alarming rate. Nuclear fuel is a hell of a lot more energy efficient then oil is. 1kg of Uranium would power a 100W bulb for 182 years, whereas 1kg of crude oil powers that same bulb for 42 days. The only reason we have not seen a switchover yet, is because of the power the oil companies have, a proper switch would take several years – long enough to cause a problem to any country if their oil supply was limited. Also, nuclear power plants are very expensive to build, and a country not devoted to preparing for the future will not bother to build many plants. When I mean prepare for the future, I mean it in the sense that oil supplies are running out, and unless we find a new pocket in the artic, we will most likely have run out by 2030.  Imagine if there was a war over the last of the oil, every country depends on it, all the world superpowers would be involved, and by 2030, this would most likely be an all-out war between the USA, China and Russia; with the smaller countries siding with these three superpowers. It doesn’t bear thinking about. This is why it is so necessary to prepare for the future, something a lot of countries seem to be currently not to bothered about. A lot of people argue about global warming being the reason to cut down on our electricity use, but as harmful as the effects of producing electricity may be, the most likely reason our governments want to cut down on the use is to prolong this potential war as long as possible. We are likely to see this war long before the harmful effects of global warming come in. So here is my argument, why not kill two birds with one stone? By switching to nuclear and to some extent renewables, as inefficient as they are, not only could we avoid the potential effects of global warming, if it is indeed happening, and avoid this catastrophic war. I may sound like Mr Pessimistic here, but to me, this is a large issue.



I recently read in a scientific magazine about a new fuel entirely. Instead of using oil or nuclear fuels to run them, it uses a little known isotope called Helium 3, which is only available on Earth when you dismantle nuclear weapons. However, somewhere where it is abundant is the Moon. And with the second race to the Moon now on, but this time with private companies and new governments involved, it’s only a matter of time before we can start utilising it. To quote the Fo magazine: “But a Shuttle bay filled with the stuff could power the US for a year.” As you can see, a small amount can go a long way, but it’s actually getting the material first that could prove tricky.

Sources: http://sciencefocus.com/feature/health/who-owns-space, Focus Magazine, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93Ukraine_gas_disputes This information was collected by me, I by no means own the information on the Focus Magazine site. 
-Side Note- I am by no means a conspiracy theorist, I don't believe in any of that crap, but what I've said above is a rough predication of what I and a few others think will happen if things don't change given the state of the World as of 2011. This doesn't necessarily mean it will come true by any means, these are only words of caution. Also, I apologise if this article wasn't particularly funny and perhaps a bit scary, I've got some interesting topics planned, and no more of this scary shit for the time being.