What if? What if oil ran out tomorrow?

[madrussian]

With oil hitting a new high today of $89.00 a barrel today, I was wondering, hypothetically of course, how would some of us in the bushcraftuk community respond or addjust if oil ran out tomorrow. I know its not bushcraft, however bushcraft skills I think would come in handy. I've read articles on peak oil and how eventually the earth will run out of easily accessible oil soon and how we would be back in the stone age etc. etc., but if that happened tomorrow, what would you do? What could you do? Could you manage without it? I think that Europe is more prepared for that then we are in the states.

I know it would make life for me extremely difficult. No electricity, no car to get to work(I work 20 miles from home), probably little to no food on the shelves of the local stores.

Just thought I would ask. Sorry if this has been done before.

 

[commandocal]

I personally dont know what oil is used for. stupid and arrogant i know , but only thing i know it is for is cars, As for Europe being more prepared than the USA thats right because the USA will somehow they will get more, Apparently its meant to run out in 2050 or something isnt it?

As for a new stone age? Hardly we would resort to nuclear power, To be honest i wouldnt be too fussed because i dont know what it is used for, but i do understand it is important because every country scientists has just found evidence that they country is connected to the arctic where it has a few years of supply of oil by the sea bed :/

 

[madrussian]

Oil is used not only for fuel, but plastics, chemicals, tires, hoses, heating homes in winter, things like that. And as far as running out, I have read that we would run out of easily accessible oil by 2012 or so. The remaining oil is either in oil sands or extremely deep.

 

[commandocal]

Yea very deep, thats why there all claiming the Arctic because its easy to dig their and its all untapped or something was on the news today, And if we ran out of those recoursces we would just have to adapt into living into an urban jungle etc and start fending,feeding and providing for ourselfs somehow,,,, Our own fault i say as because we have basically killed ourselfs if thats true, say 500 years ago where britian was 70% wild forest we would have been fine but now be would be royally screwed because i mean - how is modern society going to live without PLASTIC? PLASTICC!!, ehehe bring it on i say

 

[spamel]

I don't know, America or Canada may not be too bad a place to be. Once society breaks down and everybody heads for the hills, life would get easier. How many obese people are gonna be able to make it up them hills on foot? There's a lot of the competition gone already!

Before anybody starts getting all defensive, yup, we have our fair share of obese people in UK, but we don't have the hills that they have in America, and therefore we don't have the wildlife or fish stocks that could feed us. I reckon we will be a lot worse off. You could make a living up in the mountains, as long as you got the kit you required before it all goes pear shaped. I hope it does too, it may give the planet a chance to recover a bit from the rape and pillage!

 

[commandocal]

I don't know, America or Canada may not be too bad a place to be. Once society breaks down and everybody heads for the hills, life would get easier. How many obese people are gonna be able to make it up them hills on foot? There's a lot of the competition gone already!

Before anybody starts getting all defensive, yup, we have our fair share of obese people in UK, but we don't have the hills that they have in America, and therefore we don't have the wildlife or fish stocks that could feed us. I reckon we will be a lot worse off. You could make a living up in the mountains, as long as you got the kit you required before it all goes pear shaped. I hope it does too, it may give the planet a chance to recover a bit from the rape and pillage!

Spot on! - Canada,Alaska will be the places for me - but i would settle fine in the Scottish Cairghourns in the highlands not many people nowdays have the skill/fitness or are clued up to do something like that - the ones that make it we will rebuild our own lil' empire I agree its what this world needs - survival of the fittest

 

[Dr Onion]

Hmmmm....time to start rebuilding Hadrians wall!! ROFL!!!

Dr O

 

[Chester`C]

The quicker we run out of oil the not neccessarily the better but it would give oil hungry nations a well needed kick up the **** into doing something about developing sustainable fuel sources and trying to stop the downward spiral we've put the planet into.

The bad thing is that people will start going back to the stoneage on a grand scale due to the size of the population. Which means deforestation (fuel) so unless your miles from any kind of civilisation your woodland retreat will be no good to anyone unless you own a good gun and plenty of ammo.

Personally I think renewable enrgy will come before such a day.

I would personally pack my bag and start walking probably to the north west of scotland and wait for the storm to clear before maybe making my way to mainland Europe

 

[crazyclimber]

I think they key is whether in your question oil runs out immediately, or if it ran out with perhaps 10 or 20 years to prepare for it.
Immediately and I'm certain the world would be a very different place. No cars, no powered vehicles - LPG, diesel and petrol all oil based products. No vehicles = powerstations would probably have few staff and would find it difficult to operate. That's even if they could get fuel. We don't have the nuclear capacity in this country to supply much of our energy needs. Nuclear fuel... transported away by train I believe? Which wouldn't be operating...
Food wouldn't make it to the supermarket shelves... there'd probably be the classical run on any stores still with stock. The list goes on...
Eventually we realy would be back to a place not much more advanced than hunter gatherers. We'd have more knowledge in many of the 'technological' areas, but until we built a new transport system the population would be so engrossed in the day-to-day tasks of finding food and firewood we'd find it difficult to move forward...
All of this is only imagination of course, but I would imagine the population of the world would take a significant drop as well. Loss of advanced medical care... hygiene problems with cities full of people having to scavenge for food... I would also guess that with the lack of knowledge these days regarding natural foods and traditional 'country skills', many would perish through malnutrition as well. The areas around most of the major cities would probably also be stripped bare.
Doesn't bare thinking about!
Now that's obviously not going to hapen... given enough time we'll just adapt to using alternative sources of power

 

[commandocal]

Seems we all have the right idea,let nature retake the earth (as in logans run ) and live of the land once again (what a dream) i love threads like this that make me think

 

[crazyclimber]

I hope anyway!

 

[commandocal]

dont we all , Or just watch that film, 'Escape from L.A, and New york', isnt that set in a city that has been locked off from all electricity,fuel, food etc Get the guns lads !

 

[Mirius]

Personally I don't have any great faith in the Peak Oil theory.

As for what happened if oil ran out immediately. I think a lot of people would die. We don't have any sort of infrastructure that would cope with getting food and water to everybody. Nor would we have any government interested in doing so without the imposition of martial law. And in that scenario, people living outside the law as it, protecting themselves and hunting with firearms are sooner or later going to draw the attention of the authorities far more than joe blogs who quietly knuckles under to whatever happens, so I don't see any great future in it for anyone.

 

[madrussian]

That's the thing. At present, there is no immediate source of energy that could take the place of oil. And it appears that no one is working fast enough to find one. Sure there is research going on but not on the scale we would need if oil ran out tomorrow or ran out in the near future.

So thats the idea. How would you cope if it would run out tomorrow?

 

[commandocal]

If it ran out tomorrow Quite simply i do not know, Like most have said sure we would TRY to get to these destinations where we could support ourselfs, Like i could go to Alaska,Canada, Scotland etc and theres a good chance i could if i got their i could live of the land and be okay, but now i get what you are getting at, I live in a Town which is surrounded by other Urban cities/towns around it, And while traveeling to my destination how will i get their if their is no cars, Planes etc and no food? there will be widespred looting in this Town for sure everyone get what they can WHILE they can, So to be realistic i would as these idiots say "Tool up" with a weapon and get my bergen and head to the horse riding club/stables about an hour walk away, and grab my map, a horse and collect food or scavange on the way to scotland baby! , How bout you crazy russian what would you do mate?

 

[commandocal]

Too add to this, since youve got me thinking, is this our decade's Crisis as you say? While the other decades was the Cold War and what to do if a nuclear war erupted, didnt half the world have a plan then? , Now im thinking maybe we are overreacting as on the news today ( I dont know why i listen to it! ) was saying how the Goverments of the World over Hype things up to get control and order, I doesnt seem that big a deal, since before this thread if i woke up tomorrow and the news stated - WE HAVE RUN OUT OF OIL - I WOULD have and so would alot of people not worried since we would have false faith it will be sorted out somehow but now if i woke up to that i would bugger off before the Panic

 

[madrussian]

Whether or not it becomes a crisis who's to say. Could be. So how would you use your bushcraft skills to cope? Become a hunter/gather? Plant a large garden? Steel from the rich to give to the poor? Work with friends and neighbors and support each other? Just wanted to see what everyones thoughts were.

Personally, I know all the edible/medicinal plants in my area. I have a database in my computer. Which I would have to run off of a solar panel which I do have. I could forage in my neighbors yards because they have no idea what is edible. I guess my question kinda goes along the the thread on what you would do in a survival situation. Which I think it would be.

 

[chuckle]

If 2012 is the right date its ironic that its been predicted as the end of the world (one of many) we will just have to buy wind generaters and charge our electric cars at home.On the plus side its one less excuse to start a war.

 

[madrussian]

Actually, one article that I read, if my memory serves me, said that we would start to see severe shortages by 2008. But I didn't mention that because I didn't want to start a panic.

 

[commandocal]

panic us? aha...


HEAD FOR THE HILLS!! OMG, we have a year to set up!

and yes i would become a hunter gatherer and forage AND plant a large plantation, now you mention gonna go to get me some plant seeds tomorrow!!