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The Peak Oil Crisis
and Water Supply
Much is being
made about the "Peak Oil Crisis" in the media today. Gasoline and
natural gas prices are high and continue to rise. But what is the
"peak oil crisis" and how does it impact our water supply?
Peak Oil is
discussed and defined in an excellent book by Kenneth S. Deffeyes
entitled “Beyond Oil, The View from Hubbert's Peak”.
As Mr. Deffeyes notes:
"The supply of oil in the ground is
not infinite. Someday, annual world crude oil production has to
reach a peak and start to decline."
This is the
crux of "peak oil." However, we have always thought that this
peak oil decline is in the future sometime, to be dealt with by
future generations like many of our other problems.
Mr. Deffeyes
goes on:
"It is my opinion that the peak will
occur in late 2005 or in the first few months of 2006."
About the
United States, he continues:
"I nominate Thanksgiving Day,
November 24, 2005 as World Oil Peak Day. We can pause and give
thanks for the years 1901 to 2005 when abundant oil and natural gas
fueled enormous changes in our society. At the same time, we have to
face up to reality: World oil production is going to decline, slowly
at first and then more rapidly."
If this is
true, then we can not leave the problem to future generations.
People around the world and the leaders of the world's countries
need to take action. This is particularly true of the leading energy
using countries like the United States, China and India, as well as
the countries of the European Union.
The real issue
is energy, which goes beyond oil supplies. Much of our energy is
supplied directly or indirectly by the use of oil and natural gas.
Energy in the form of hydrocarbons and electricity fuels our world
today. Essentially declining oil supplies mean less energy available
to fuel our world. This means less gasoline and electricity as well
as less food, plastic, steel, concrete, lumber and asphalt paving to
name a few.
How does this
impact our water supplies?
How are water
and energy linked? In my book “Understanding
Water and Terrorism”, I note that two of our nation's
critical infrastructures are the water supply systems and the
electrical grid. A third major infrastructure is the transportation
system.
Simply put,
without energy most of our nation's water supply would cease to
work. Energy in the form of electricity, diesel and natural gas is
used to pump and process our raw water into clean drinking water.
Chemicals and supplies for our water treatment plants and our water
distribution systems are transported by truck, air and rail.
"But I am in a
rural community or live on a farm, far from the large city water
supplies," you say. Your community still has to pump the water into
the distribution lines and maintain line pressure. If you live on a
farm or in a rural setting, you probably have a pump for your well,
which uses energy.
Another issue
is fire protection. One of the main uses of water is to fight fires,
whether building fires or wildfires. A good example of the problem
was the lack of water for fire protection after Hurricane Katrina in
New Orleans. Part of New Orleans was burned because there were no
pumps, electricity, water or water pressure to fight the fires.
Water and
agriculture around the world is very closely linked. We can not grow
food without water. Water is critical to our food supply. Much of
the water used to irrigate our crops is pumped from the ground, or
pumped from rivers and lakes onto fields. In California, water is
pumped through long irrigation canals stretching hundreds of miles
from the Colorado River to the fields. Modern irrigation systems are
very dependent on energy sources such as electricity, diesel or
natural gas.
But What Can I Do
about this?
One way you can
help yourself and our nation get through this crisis is to become
informed. There are several very good books on the market today that
will give you some background and a basic understanding of the
issues. You can then make decisions affecting your family and your
future based on a "heightened level of awareness."
This will also
have an impact on the world that we leave to future generations.
Without this awareness, we leave the decisions to our "leaders." We
essentially take ourselves out of the "loop" and let others dictate
our future. While our leaders may be well meaning, they need help.
It may be easier to take popular positions based on a "60 second
media newsbyte" or follow the position of our political party, but
these rarely if ever result in a satisfactory long term solution to
any problem. This is especially true of our current energy crisis,
which is a survival issue for the United States.
For Your Preparedness
H.
Court Young
H. Court Young is an author and publisher. He has written 3 books
on water and terrorism. He uses a laptop computer to write at the
local Barnes and Noble Bookstore were they have high speed internet
connectivity.
He has been a computer consultant and network specialist since
his first computer purchase in 1977. He is very interested in
technology and in particular laptop computers.
You can find more books, articles and information about
laptop
computers, laptop peripherals, laptop software, laptop security and
laptop use at:
our
WritersLaptop
Notebooks and Laptops website.
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