Peak everything

Some people are talking about peak oil, that point after which the production of oil decreases, but everything has a peak, there's peak gas and coal, peak minerals, peak agriculture, etc. We have an ever growing consumption of the Earth's resources, this, of course, cannot go on forever. Nothing can increase forever, not on this planet, at least.

This planet is finite and so are the resources. Peak oil is the most talked about peak because our entire economy is based on oil. The demand for oil constantly increases but the production of oil has not increased for years, we have hit the top of production, it will only go down. The International Energy Agency predicts that production will decline 6.7% per year. This is huge.

Some people say that since 1950, we have consumed 50% of the world's resources: oil, gas, coal, minerals, etc. Others are saying that 2/3 of the Earth's resources have been "used up" (source).

We have become so addicted to oil that we cultivate crops for biofuels, meanwhile a billion people are starving. It seems that we need to drive our cars more than we need to feed hungry people.

This silly system does not stop. You will not hear politicians saying that we should stop buying cars, because we have passed peak oil. Actually, we are encouraged to continue to buy cars, to keep the economy from crashing but gasoline is becoming more and more expensive and people don't have the money to buy it.

The solution, of course, is to stop using our cars and stop buying cars. You may say: "oh, this is crazy, we cannot live without our cars". People have lived for thousands of years without cars and they were fine. We have a pretty good public transportation network and we can improve it, we can go anywhere we want without owning a car. In the current situation, I believe that buying a new car is stupid, as gasoline prices will continue to rise. Electric cars are not a solution either, not yet, because electricity is still produced mostly from fossil fuels.

Minerals are also exploited mindlessly and they will run out. We produce all kinds of gadgets using rare minerals and we should recycle as much as possible. Everything should be designed to be recyclable and durable. We are creating so much trash that the future presented in the movie Wall-E, where the planet is covered in trash, may not be impossible.

Also, agriculture will decline as topsoil erosion increases. Maybe we will find solutions in hydroponics and aeroponics. We will also have problems with fresh water.

The fishing industry has also declined since the 1980's and will continue to decline, industrial fishing is just not sustainable, over fishing is a big problem.

Some of these peaks have already happened, the others will happen very soon. The future will be very dark if we continue like this. One thing is clear, we cannot continue to do things as we are currently doing. We must change the way we interact with the planet, we must take care of our precious resources.

See this:
Peak everything
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