How Society Depends on Cheap Energy

A fact the is often overlooked or not understood is that all of modern civilization with our wealth and technology has been built up layer by layer on what was done by those in the past.  Each generation builds upon that which the previous generations laid down.  It did not require the labor of a decade to send men to the moon, it required the labor of thousands of years.  And since the advent of industrial civilization, the substance that fastens everything together is cheap and abundant energy.

Those that say the industrial age is ended and we are in the information age, ought to give up smoking pot and snorting coke.  To assert this is like saying that farmers are a relic of the past.  Yes we have a technology that is more and more centered in the movement of information, but that technology rests on the foundation of industrial society and is completely dependent on a huge industrial base to produce and maintain the information technology.  The industrial base is in turn completely dependent on agriculture to produce the food and fiber that are essential to the maintenance of human life.  Without a highly productive agriculture, there could not be cities.   Without cities, there could not be industries.  And without a multitude of industries laboring for several hundred years, there could be no advanced information technology.

But the modern world does not rest today of 18th century agriculture, but on 21st century agriculture.  And modern information technology does not rest on 19th century industries, but on 21st century industries.  And 21st century agriculture and 21st century industry both rest on 21st century OIL.  It is estimated that today, each calorie of food energy requires  3 calories of fossil fuel energy to produce.   It requires fossil fuel to produce the implements of modern agriculture.  It requires diesel to power the equipment that tills, plants, and harvests the crops. It requires fossil fuel to produce the fertilizer and chemicals that make modern yields possible.  And it requires fossil fuels to process and transport the food to the people who now live in the cities.  Without OIL it all stops.  No cell phones.   No cars.  No light.  No FOOD! 

Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words.   And it came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they used tar [asphalt nkjv; bitumen ylt, nrsv] for mortar. And they said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven..." (NAS Genesis 11:1-4)

Just as the people built the tower of Babel using petroleum (asphalt) to hold it all together, so also, modern civilization is held together by petroleum.  Without the mortar of OIL the tower of modern man will fall to the ground.

For further information check out:
THE PEAK OF WORLD OIL PRODUCTION AND THE ROAD TO THE OLDUVAI GORGE
http://dieoff.org
http://www.peakoil.net
http://www.asponews.org
http://www.energybulletin.net/4834.html
or search for info on peak oil.

The point is, THE TOWER IS ABOUT TO FALL.  The collapse of civilization from natural causes would probably not occur overnight, but over the next few decades (if it went peacefully into the night).  Oil prices would continue to rise, interrupted for short periods as the global economy falls into repeated recessions and then finally the economy will fall off into a permanent abyss.  As readily available fossil fuels are depleted, the industrial and agricultural base of the global economy will increasingly fall apart and the world as we now know it will implode -IN THIS GENERATION!  We face huge famines and global war as the powerful try to seize the remaining resources for themselves.

Jesus said:

"for then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever shall.  And unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days shall be cut short." (Matthew 24:20,22)

And I looked, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him; and he went out conquering, and to conquer. And when He broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come." And another, a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men should slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.  And when He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come." And I looked, and behold, a black horse; and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand.  And I heard as it were a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine." And when He broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, "Come." And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. And authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth. (Revelations 6:2-8)

The events described by Jesus, the Apostles, and Prophets presuppose the existence of a global civilization and communications.  Once oil is depleted (and there is not sufficient time to find a substitute even if it were possible) modern industrial civilization will cease to exit forever.  Without a miracle of God, there simply will not be the natural resources to rebuild the tower.  Human civilization would have to revert to a sustainable agrarian mode of existence.  But will modern man go quietly into the night?  Will the rich, armed with nuclear weapons, biological and chemical weapons hesitate long in using them in an attempt to maintain their standard of living a few more years?  And what will happen to those who truly follow the Lord Jesus and object to the murder and rape?

The end of cheap abundant energy and the impending death of the modern world necessitate to soon return of our Lord Jesus.

MARANANTHA