If a disaster occured and our country no longer had access to oil, what could we

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   MarleneBposted 12 years ago

   If a disaster occured and our country no longer had access to oil, what could we do to survive?
   
   Assume we still have all of our other natural resources, such as water. We just don't have access to oil. What are some alternatives to using oil?

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2. 60

   Hestia DeVotoposted 12 years ago

   For many things, there just isn't an alternative to using oil.  And given that there is a finite amount of oil on the planet and we have burnt through the majority of it in the last 300 years, it won't take a natural disaster for the oil supply to be reduced or cut off.
   
   http://hestiadevoto.hubpages.com/hub/coping-peak-oil
   
   The best way to adapt to not having access to oil is to adjust how you live now to reduce the use and do as many things as you can in a way that doesn't use anything derived from fossil fuels.

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3. 64

   PhoenixVposted 12 years ago

   We have the technology to go to 12 volt DC, right now. Many RV's use 12 volt. We could use wind generators and solar panels. Its just that there is no encouragement to develop appliances that work well on 12 volts.

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4. 68

   Larry Fieldsposted 12 years ago

   The U.S. is the undisputed Saudi Arabia of coal. If we had a slow disaster, or had plenty of advance warning for a sudden disaster, we could build Fischer-Tropsch plants to make gasoline, using coal as a starting material. South Africa did this for many years, when the country was under sanctions, because of Apartheid.
   
   The catch is that the FT process is very expensive. Our standard of living would take a big hit.

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   wwriterposted 12 years ago

   This is a very important question. There is a finite supply of oil in our planet. Even without any disasters we will run out of oil one day. We must look into harnessing renewable sources of energy such as wind, water and solar energy - resources that are abundantly available and less or non-polluting. I understand that researching and commercially utilizing these may be expensive, but this is something that needs to be addressed very soon, if we are to leave a sustainable world to the next generation.

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