Photo - File, Valley Publishing

Ever since the U.S. and other industrial countries put all of they eggs in the petroleum basket, the one thing that politicians will never address is that “What goes up must come down”. For nearly a hundred years, the U.S. was increasing its own production of oil, but in the 1970’s the U.S. reached its peak oil production at about 10 million barrels a day. Now, that is down to nearly 4 million barrels a day.

The rest is imported from our neighbors and from some countries that don’t think to highly of the U.S. But, that's not, the BIG problem. The world will reach or has reach “Peak Oil”. Peak oil is the point on the up and down continuum at which the most production or pumping of oil occurs.

At this point in the continuum, China and India are increasingly becoming major competitors in the oil-guzzling contest. Thus, demand has increased while supply has dropped. Every drop of oil pumped from now on is going to be the more expensive oil... the more difficult to pump oil... the worst quality oil. The days of pumping pure "light" at the surface are over.

One of the problems with peak oil is that the demand has risen to the point where supply can’t keep up. It doesn’t really matter if it has past or is near. The point is, that from this time on we will see the price of everything continue to rise. When you live on, or are addicted to, an oil-dependent economy; quality of life will follow the downward arc of the oil roller-coaster ride. At this point, economies, if not the world economy, will be "shaken not stirred".

Oil is traded on the world markets like any other commodity and when there is a hint at scarcity... the price will jump. Some say that $30 a barrel oil is a thing of the past. Now come the repercussions.

Everything that is transported anywhere in the U.S. requires oil. The airline industry has already felt the pinch of higher oil and jet fuel prices. Truckers are also feeling the squeeze. What about farmers. You bet.

Since the advent of the corporate farm, including the major portion of the cotton farming in the Upper Valley, the land has been basically ruined. It is kept alive by infusions of artificial fertilizers and petroleum based pesticides and fuels. Tractors run on diesel and the price of diesel has doubled in the last 10 years. The prices at the grocery store reflect this disturbing trend in farm expenses.

At some point, the cost of growing, weeding, de-bugging, processing and transporting food will take a huge jump in price. Famers will be forced out of business. At this point, there will no longer be “3,000 mile Caesar salads" which we presently can enjoy at any time, day or night. What that means is that only the wealthy will be able to afford to have food shipped to them. All others will require to have local sources of food.

No problem? Big problem. The cost of maintaining water supplies for farmers will go up also. To quote a portion of an article by Howard Kunstler’s The Long Emergency as excerpted in The Rolling Stone magazine. ”The Mountain States and Great Plains will face an array of problems, from poor farming potential to water shortages to population loss”... “The Southwest will suffer in proportion to the degree that it prospered during the cheap-oil blowout of the late twentieth century. I predict that Sunbelt states like Arizona and Nevada will become significantly depopulated, since the region will be short of water as well as gasoline and natural gas. Imagine Phoenix without cheap air conditioning.”

Just when this little desert community of El Paso/Las Cruces/Cd. Juarez will need its farmland; we will have to look for it under the asphalt of multiple Dollar General store parking lots. Just when we are desperate for the next shipment of food to arrive from Mexico, full of pesticides and poisons, we will remember that there were thousands of arces of farmland that could have been kept in pristine condition but instead were exploited and then buried alive.

It is time for the politicians of the 21st century to actually deal with these eventualities. Will ours. Will you. Written by: Jorge "Brax" Molinar
Jorge "Brax" Molinar

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Editor, Upper Valley Beacon

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