World Without Oil
by Matthew Sparkes, London, UK on 05. 6.07
World Without Oil is an alternate reality game funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and ITVS. It's an online game, with the premise that we have reached peak-oil. The site features a ‘reality dashboard’, which shows fictional gas prices, fuel shortages, and other metrics for chaos, suffering and economic impact for different parts of the country, updated every day. The aim is to investigate the many possible socio-economic outcomes of running out of oil, and to entertain at the same time.
If you want to get involved, then you are invited to write blog posts, create videos, take photos and use any other means necessary to document what life is like in this fictional post-oil world.
The idea is half-fiction, half investigative process - the game’s motto is, 'Play it, before you live it'. It launched on Monday, and people have already submitted hundreds of documents, which you can freely browse. There is also an official ‘back-story’, written by the game’s organisers which will be used to introduce new events and circumstances. For instance, the latest game updates include instructions on how to throw fuel-free parties. If all this sounds interesting, but slightly confusing, then don't worry - that's the idea. A post-oil world will be confusing. Sign up and get involved. :: World Without Oil
I don't think a post oil world would sound "confusing" if we prepare for it now. We may not live to see this environment but there is not doubt in my mind that it is inevitable within a century or two. Our job is to wean ourselves away from oil dependency and that weaning process should begin with the admission that sources of oil will decline.
Preparation for a world without oil means the development of alternate forms of energy as well as energy systems. Our rail system, for example, should become electric based. Our vehicle technology should also transition over to an electric based system.
We can continue to burn fuels in ICE's (Internal Combustion Engines) but as can be plainly seen with the rise of the Chinese vehicular industry, an increased strain is placed upon world oil reserves. About 25% of all world oil reserves are needed to keep the US going and we comprise but 4% of the world population. If only 16% of the people used oil as we do, there would be no oil left for the rest of the world.
The solution is to transition while we can to vehicular electrical systems because the biofuels are not going to be enough. In fact, we already have seen increases in corn prices as a secondary reaction to the competition for corn between food and biofuel and can soon expect the same to occur with the cost of all meats and poultry products dependent upon corn feedstocks as a tertiary outcome.
The transition to electrical systems has two parts, production and use. The production side means electrical generation from sustainable God given sources such as wind, solar, wave, free hydro and Geothermal. The use side means that power systems for vehicles of all types must be based upon the storage and use of electricity. EV's (electric vehicles) must eventually replace ICE's (Internal Combustion Engines).
Yes. Someday we will live in a world without oil. There is no need to play games and cry "wolf" because we are already beginning to feel its hot breath on the backs of our necks.
adrianakau@aol.com
Is there not enough room on the bookshelf for both the Bible and An Inconvenient Truth? What is the reasoning behind the replacement?
What I would find really interesting is how they plan to substitute machinery lubricants and other less obvious stuff like that...also where will all the future comestics come from? I somehow doubt that these for example can be all replaced by herbal substitutes as there is simply not enough agricultural area to use, is there? I mean, there are certainly more important things than make-up in the world, but in the end it's always those little things that bug us the most...
A world without oil is not a game.
Games have definitive winners and losers - and those without money are certainly losing. While more people care about Paris Hilton and Brad Pitt than researching the very systems that allow them to live, we remain in dire peril.
But no one likes to hear bad news, do they? We all die sometime, the question is - "Can we do it with dignity?"
People are strange when your a stranger
"Play it - before you live it."