Re: SC34

Hydrocarbon energy, from all indications I have seen, will be waning fast in the coming years. This coming reality will affect drastically, local, and worldwide transportation, which provides greatly for the current abundance of our industrial societies, and the consequent affluence it affords the average citizen. Our current worldwide infrastructure, has been built on cheap, easy to find, high quality hydrocarbon energy. New technologies can provide us with energy, but when it comes to matching the volume, and scale of the energy, that hydrocarbons have provided us, from what I have seen, they come up drastically short of filling the gap of what we will lose, in our near future. Infrastructure, be it transportation vehicles of all sorts, buildings, highways, food systems, all of the perks that so called " advanced " society now provides us with, was made possible because of hydrocarbon energy. Basically, our current societies were all built on a vast hydrocarbon energy base of production means. Now, we are faced with the absolute prospect that in our very near future, we will have to live, more and more, without the benifits that hydrocarbons provided our complex societies. Our world situation regarding human development is showing itself by all measures to be an " out of control " sitituation regarding mans impact upon the biosphere, our life support system. Growing masses of people, reckless use of resources, diverse and contridictory belief systems, are all progressing the story of humanity in directions that are dire, with ultimately no wise plan guiding its course. Will another energy source, or combination of sources actually be able duplicate what hydrocarbons have provided for humanity. From my perspective, and from what I have seen as information, the hope for that is very dim currently. With the stock market at record levels, and the price for a barrel of oil going below 50 dollars just a yesterday, I know for most, its hard to feel like there's big trouble brewing. Just as in the metaphorical comparison as described in my recent post here, between the space shuttle astronauts, and our civilization, things are not always what they might seem to be. All great societies before us have fallen, and receded into the dustbin of history. But our collective fall this time, I think, will be thunderous indeed.