Michael Janzen

Back in 2005 I launched a website that was part car blog and free classifieds; but it never went anywhere. A few years ago I completely lost interest in cars because I came to the realization that they were one of the key elements leading to the potential demise of our civilization.

OK, OK, I know that sounds a little crazy… OK, OK, a lot crazy… but here’s my thinking:

1. Cars burn gas.
2. Cars are becoming more common place around the globe.
3. More gas is being burned everyday as more people drive cars.
4. Gas is a fossil fuel.
5. Fossil fuels are a non-renewable natural resource.
6. We will run out of oil.
7. Oil is the life blood of the global economy.
8. People naturally change slowly.
9. When we run out of oil most people will be taken by surprise.
10. The forced sudden change will cause a major disruption across the globe.

Fossil fuels are such an enormous part of our world today that when it finally becomes scarce it is only logical that big change will be a reality. I think it will be sudden because the people that own the oil will want to continue to keep profits high until they run out of gas. There is no business justificaiton to give us warning. There is a business justification to put more profits into alternatives to oil.

For example we’ve seen an enormous increase in coal mining and America has one of the largest coal reserves in the world. Today 50% of our electricity comes from burning coal. It’s too bad the energy companies and our government didn’t choose to put more effort into renewable resources. Now we can look forward to peak oil and peak coal.

When all this peaking comes down I don’t think will not be the end of civilization, but i do think it will bring about some very tough times. Our lifestyles will be forced to change. Where we get our food, how we live, where we live, and how we get around will all need to adjust during this period of time between running out of fossil fuels and inventing new renewable energy sources.

The length of this gap will be determined by combination of things like human ingenuity, global conflicts, corporate and government policies, and our own personal choices. Since we have the most influence over our own choices it seems like that’s a great place to start to prepare. We can begin making lifestyle changes now and become more self-sufficient and learn live more sustainability. We can also choose to change how we travel and how often.

This is the kind of thinking that recently inspired me to begin blogging about post-peak oil transportation options. I’ll cover thing like electric cars, air-powered cars, plug-in hybrids, and human-powered machines.

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Imagine a world connected by a decentralized power grid. If we began installing grid-tied solar panels on every roof now we might just win the race to peak oil too.

The infrastructure is already set-up except for a place to store the extra power… oh yeah electric cars! We could store all that spare electricity in our cars. Imagine an world with millions of electric cars running around. Things would be a lot quieter and yes we’d need to look both ways before we cross the street.

The truth is that electric cars and range-extended electric cars will be hitting the roads in 2010. Hopefully their arrival will coincide with an economic recovery so the companies building them will succeed.

I can dream right?