PetroWorld

Let's take a look at the big picture. In the past there were no usable hydrocarbons because uses for them had not been found. In the future there will not be any usable hydrocarbons because many uses for them will have been found and all of it that could be extracted will have been consumed. In between was/is PetroWorld.

PetroWorld is an artificial state of existence caused by having access to so many hydrocarbon resources that you begin to believe that there will always be hydrocarbons. Once you have taken residence in PetroWorld you are able to imagine a future that has unlimited hydrocarbons and you can even begin to plan for your future with that assumption in mind. Residents of PetroWorld begin to envision bizarre things like unlimited population expansion, unending economic growth, unbridled consumption, limitless travel (eventually to the stars), continual technological expansion and even virtual immortality. Anything is possible. In the real world, however, we all know that those things are not really attainable. All of those things depend on unlimited energy. Energy is not unlimited. In the past those things did not exist. In a very short while (our lifetimes) we will have to face up to the finite nature of hydrocarbon energy and those things will again have no meaning.

Inevitably, we will have to leave PetroWorld and return to the real world. I believe that will happen, not when we have used up all the hydrocarbons but rather, when our culture truly accepts the fact that we will not always have hydrocarbons. When we admit that the real state of existence is hydrocarbon free. At that point our future will become real and we can begin to plan accordingly. We can begin to build a world that is founded on rational limits and realistic expectations. We can begin to build a real world.