Collapse Assignment #2

If it were up to me, oil would be gone. However, my understanding of the importance of oil is limited. When I think oil, I think of it as fuel for cars, never really looking that deep past the surface. However, oil is crucial to nearly all aspects of American life from a manufacturing standpoint. It is because of this, that I both hate oil and know that without it, we are most likely doomed.

What happens when you run out of food? Well, you can last a while, long enough to go to the grocery store and buy some more. Now, what happens if the grocery store is closed? You go the night without it, it's tough, but you deal. The next morning, it's still closed, so you try to find an alternative store, only to find none. Down the line, you realize the food is all gone and that you have to find a replacement for food. But you don't have the energy to expend towards this, since you are running poorly due to starvation. Then you cannot find an alternative and collapse without your food. Now, read that all again, replacing grocery stores with oil reserves and food with the oil itself. That is America's future. Dependency on any one substance is never a good thing, look at the way that has been dealt with in the past. When America relied on slaves upon foundation, nobody seriously considered the fact that they might get rights one day, and when it did happen the slave owners were in for the shock of their lives and a major adjustment to the way they lived their lives. However, dependency on slaves is nothing in comparison to oil, and manpower is more of a renewable resource than oil.

Another aspect of the current way of life is the ever increasing population. According to "Crude Impact" there were essentially 2,000,000 people on the Earth at any one time over the times\-span of nearly 100,000 years. Then in the year 1800, the population had ballooned out to 1,000,000,000 (1 Billion) people. From that point to today the world population has increased to nearly 7 billion people, which is a number expected to be reached next year. Earlier I used the analogy of a balloon in terms of population growth. Balloons can only stretch to a certain point though before they simply explode. The Earth similarly can only support so many lives before collapsing. This connects to the usage of oil, as with more people on the planet more oil is used. In fact, calorie by calorie, oil is used at a rate ten times that of food, another resource that has shown increase in recent years. With food on the rise, the amount of oil used is also on the rise, therefore bringing about collapse in the near future.

Source Here

However, collapse is not a definitive. I would like to theorize that the strength of the human spirit would pull through in such a situation. People are always trying to be better, do better, and never die. This may very well be the reason that collapse is likely, but it is also what would bring the world through a crisis such as this. Past tragedies such as 9/11 have shown that great tragedies only serve to unite the people to a common cause, and in the event of a collapse, not only the American people, but all countries would find the strength and resolve to persevere. For that reason, I will admit that collapse scares me, but what comes next I have complete faith in.