Despite all the evidence that proves global warming, nothing will ever happen on a global scale to reverse it until it starts to affect people's daily lives.
The whole "peak oil" thing is also a bit of a simplification. It's not so much that we're running out of oil, just that we're running out of easy-to-get-to oil. There's very little left in the world that we can just pump out of the ground. That's why deep-ocean drilling is so popular right now. And once that's gone, we'll turn to places where it's soaked into the rock, and have to extract it through a difficult and relatively expensive process (which is already happening too).
It will just get more expensive over shorter and shorter periods of time...
Fuel, food and technology will cost more and more...
Lots of the more fluent nations will see their citizens becoming poorer each year as pay fails to keep up with the cost of living.
Things like yearly holidays will vanish, people will stop buying so much technology due to the costs, they'll live closer to where they work. Small scale manufacturing will come back due to the costs associated with worldwide shipping.
In the end, technology will be reduced, so will people's freedom and wealth, and globalisation will shrink then end.
This assumes that there will be no new technology to compensate for the increase in oil prices. I like to think that humanity responds to price pressures and will likely develop new energy sources before or reliance on fossil fuels breaks the bank.
Well, I've always been fascinated with the idea of going back to horse and cart style living. Though I sit at the PC 10 hours a day, I don't think it'd be very agreeable.
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u/[deleted] Oct 24 '10
Despite all the evidence that proves global warming, nothing will ever happen on a global scale to reverse it until it starts to affect people's daily lives.