After reading the article, squeezing more oil out of the ground, I was reminded that that peak oil will have a huge economic impact down the road but technology advances will postpone the estimated date. Recovery costs will be supplemented with technological advances, however energy costs will continue to rise as long as there is unquenchable demand for energy, and that is met with a fixed amount of non-renewable sources. The ‘easy’ oil is rapidly being used up and the article suggests that every time those recoverable resources near the point of being used up, a technological advance allows the capture of previously unattainable reserves. This is because there is economic incentive to engineer those technologies. In the Crude Awakening they show the aftermath of areas in which resources have been exhausted and it serves a good reminder that resources are limited and can actually be completely used up. The argument that oil starts war ignores the many other political, economic, and social factors that are all factors in war. Oil is a resource fuel and that fuel creates energy. Its mere existence cannot be condemned as the enemy of peace, or start wars. The Crude Awakening video argues that oil intensifies and fuels war. War and disputes can occur over anything of value. Oil happens to be very valuable energy source being powerful and relatively inexpensive to refine, store, and ship. Cheap energy fuels economic prosperity and prosperity raises the social standards of living. Conflict will always naturally occur and blaming oil for the breakdown of peace in the modern world cannot be substantiated.
