The End of Petroleum

Petroleum rules the world

At present the world thrives on the use of petroleum. Almost all transport uses it, from cars and trucks to trains and planes. A world without petroleum would almost grind to a halt, but we might start to use ‘healthier’ modes of transport: bicycles and those old standbys, the feet.

All plastic is made from petroleum, and plastic is used everywhere: in cars, in houses, in toys, computers and even clothing. A world without plastic would be one that would have to revert to ‘natural’ materials.

We use petroleum to pave our roads with asphalt, and in the tires that drive over the roads. A world without petroleum might well be paved once again with cobblestones. Or something more comfortable to ride over.

Some fertilisers and pesticides come from petroleum; without these we might well have to revert to natural fertilisers, a idea that appeals strongly to environmentalists.

Millions of jobs would be wiped out overnight, if petroleum production ceased.

But over a short period of time, millions of other jobs would have to be created to compensate for all the areas of life in which petroleum at present rules.

The loss of air travel

One of our biggest losses would be jet aeroplanes. We’ve come to take these for granted. Many people will book a plane at a moment’s notice and travel a distance that our ancestors would never have considered possible without weeks of planning.

In watching the most recent episodes of West Wing, I am both amused and appalled at the casual attitude the characters take towards flying from one city to another. As the momentum of the Presidential race increases, these characters hop from place to place, even stopping off at several cities in one day. (No wonder they look exhausted!). This is an absurd overuse of air transport.

But the pollution factor of aeroplanes is enormous, and we’re only just beginning to realise how much their emissions are damaging our planet.

The pollution aspect

The pollution factor of much of our other use of petroleum is overwhelming: oil spills killing wildlife and soiling beaches; the dumping of unwanted petroleum products into drains or onto local land; plastic objects and containers causing damage to animals, birds and fish; the extremely slow breakdown process of plastic which means even our landfills are polluted.

Could we live without petroleum?

Would it be possible to live once again in a world without petroleum? Can we imagine it?

Like it or not, we would have to revert to some of the ways we used to live in the past. On the other hand, the loss of petroleum, and our progress in life since it was first introduced, would no doubt encourage inventors to come up with an extraordinary new range of ways of moving about the planet, of using new materials to cover the loss of plastic and other ‘essentials’ of modern life.

But what other things might we gain? Without aeroplanes, we might well go back to some form of ocean travel. One of the great advantages of ocean travel is that we are forced to slow down: no more jet lag, no more travellers’ thrombosis, the easier adjustment to change in climate and time. And rest. Ocean travel encourages rest, and one of the things we greatly lack in our day is rest, the ability to stop being rushed from place to place.

Without plastic we would be forced to take another look at materials that we’ve stopped using: textiles of all sorts that we used to clothe ourselves with, and build the things inside our houses with. Could computers run inside a different kind of housing? Does it need to be plastic?

The older I get the more I see people worn down from the sheer pace of life. It’s interesting that societies that live without most of the mod cons of our lives, have more space, more time to reflect, more time to be human.

Of course there would be huge losses if petroleum came to an end. But the gains in health, well-being and perhaps even our sanity as a race might be far greater.