Declining supplies of oil and
natural gas will have a serious impact on society
The Peak Oil Crisis and Water
Supply
by Herbert Young
Much is being made about the
"Peak Oil Crisis" in the media today. Gasoline and natural gas
prices are high and continue to rise. But what is the "peak oil
crisis" and how does it impact our water supply?
Peak Oil is discussed and
defined in an excellent book by Kenneth S. Deffeyes entitled "Beyond
Oil, The View from Hubbert's Peak." As Mr. Deffeyes notes: "The
supply of oil in the ground is not infinite. Someday, annual world
crude oil production has to reach a peak and start to decline."
This is the crux of "peak
oil." However, we have always thought that this peak oil decline is
in the future sometime, to be dealt with by future generations like
many of our other problems.
Mr. Deffeyes goes on: "It is
my opinion that the peak will occur in late 2005 or in the first few
months of 2006."
About the United States, he
continues: "I nominate Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 2005 as World
Oil Peak Day. We can pause and give thanks for the years 1901 to
2005 when abundant oil and natural gas fueled enormous changes in
our society. At the same time, we have to face up to reality: World
oil production is going to decline, slowly at first and then more
rapidly."
If this is true, then we can
not leave the problem to future generations. People around the world
and the leaders of the world's countries need to take action. This
is particularly true of the leading energy using countries like the
United States, China and India, as well as the countries of the
European Union.
The real issue is energy,
which goes beyond oil supplies. Much of our energy is supplied
directly or indirectly by the use of oil and natural gas. Energy in
the form of hydrocarbons and electricity fuels our world today.
Essentially declining oil supplies mean less energy available to
fuel our world. This means less gasoline and electricity as well as
less food, plastic, steel, concrete, lumber and asphalt paving to
name a few.
How does this impact our
water supplies?
How are water and energy linked? In my book "Understanding Water and
Terrorism," I note that two of our nation's critical infrastructures
are the water supply systems and the electrical grid. A third major
infrastructure is the transportation system.
Simply put, without energy
most of our nation's water supply would cease to work. Energy in the
form of electricity, diesel and natural gas is used to pump and
process our raw water into clean drinking water. Chemicals and
supplies for our water treatment plants and our water distribution
systems are transported by truck, air and rail.
"But I am in a rural
community or live on a farm, far from the large city water
supplies," you say. Your community still has to pump the water into
the distribution lines and maintain line pressure. If you live on a
farm or in a rural setting, you probably have a pump for your well,
which uses energy.
Another issue is fire
protection. One of the main uses of water is to fight fires, whether
building fires or wildfires. A good example of the problem was the
lack of water for fire protection after Hurricane Katrina in New
Orleans. Part of New Orleans was burned because there were no pumps,
electricity, water or water pressure to fight the fires.
Water and agriculture around
the world is very closely linked. We can not grow food without
water. Water is critical to our food supply. Much of the water used
to irrigate our crops is pumped from the ground, or pumped from
rivers and lakes onto fields. In California, water is pumped through
long irrigation canals stretching hundreds of miles from the
Colorado River to the fields. Modern irrigation systems are very
dependent on energy sources such as electricity, diesel or natural
gas.
What You Can Do
One way you can help yourself and our nation get through this crisis
is to become informed. There are several very good books on the
market today that will give you some background and a basic
understanding of the issues. You can then make decisions affecting
your family and your future based on a "heightened level of
awareness."
This will also have an
impact on the world that we leave to future generations. Without
this awareness, we leave the decisions to our "leaders." We
essentially take ourselves out of the "loop" and let others dictate
our future. While our leaders may be well meaning, they need help.
It may be easier to take popular positions based on a "60 second
media newsbyte" or follow the position of our political party, but
these rarely if ever result in a satisfactory long term solution to
any problem. This is especially true of our current energy crisis,
which is a survival issue for the United States.
H. Court Young is a
writer, author, publisher and a geologist. He has written one book
on water supply and two books on water supply and terrorism. They
can be found at
http://www.waterconflicts.com.
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