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German Military Braces For Peak Oil
myrdos2 writes "A study by a German military think tank leaked to the Internet warns of the potential for a dire global economic crisis in as little as 15 years as a result of a peak and an irreversible decline in world oil supplies. The study states that there is 'some probability that peak oil will occur around the year 2010 and that the impact on security is expected to be felt 15 to 30 years later. ... In the medium term the global economic system and every market-oriented national economy would collapse.' The report closely matches one from the US military earlier this year, which stated that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact."
And it's not encouraging sane practices. Allowing large areas of land to be fed to grazing animals does nothing to encourage top soil retention. Nothing your site presents sounds sustainable long term. Especially when oil powers the farmers house, the house that your swapping with and the machinery the farm uses.
What do you suggest I feed my animals with? Processed "hard feed" uses a lot of petrochemicals to produce, and isn't good for the animals. It's like feeding them a diet of burgers and sweets all the time - you end up with fat, unhealthy cows and sheep. No, turning the land over to arable farming isn't a good idea. Most of the world's farmland isn't rolling Iowa cornfields.
What do you suggest I heat my house with? Solar? Yeah, that's going to work just *great* in the winter when I get six hours of sunlight. At least my wood-burning stove works, and I've got a few hundred acres of quick-growing Sitka spruce to fall back on, not to mention peat to burn. What about the farm machinery, though? Here's a hint - you don't get hybrid tractors, and if you did they mostly wouldn't make sense. Neither would electric ones.