$10 a litre in a decade

[gunrunner]

Just read on the net that within a decade petrol will be up round $10 a litre , if thats the case the world will be in recession as transport costs etc will be sky high hence most products prices will be through the roof . What will our vehicles be running on steam - we will be paying for the water , electricity will be that expensive if we can afford it .Mad Max 2 might be not that far away .

[Dargor]

You know there saying that speculation is the couse of your current high prices. Thanks for fueling it.

[The Lone Rider]

... and then finially I can take over the world

[awayatc]

With cheap petrol being gone, the alternatives will finaly become worth exploring......so there may be hope yet....
Cuba suffered oil embargo's and all sort of other sanctions, they adapted..

[98tls]

Oh well make sure you have one of these then.

[Motu]

And people wonder why the Government bought back the railways.In a time of very restricted fuel supplies,or none at all because supply chains have been cut - then it won't look so stupid after all.Sure they still need fuel,but being Government owned as much fuel as they require can be diverted to keep the country supplied with essentials.

Your motorcycles will be totally worthless - to save you the trauma of disposal,I will take them off your hands for a small recycling fee.....

[fire eyes]

I just bought a new pair of sneakers .. I guess they will come in handy.

[offrd]

Anything is possible.....

The world will be a different place for sure if or when it happens...

Most of it wont be good....

[MaxB]

One thing people forget about is to take predictions in context. Most of the scaremongering is caused by people thinking about their current situation and translating it into the future. eg on my current wages I could not afford $10 a litre.

It may well be that once oil producing countries grow too big to feed their population (and some are very close already) we can sell them pure beef or unspoiled food for $100/kilo or we find billions of $ worth of gas or oil or gold in NZ.

One thing is for sure; the clever first world countries will turn things to their advantage as they always do and the third world countries will get even poorer. We have to decide which side we want to be on. We can make and sell things that people want to finance our current lifestyles or we can become a Jamiaca or Fiji, a third world country that has nice beaches where the tourists can come and laugh at the poor people.

[EJK]

Theres a way to counter the tragedy...



EARN MORE MONEY!!!!

[Dakara]

If gas were to reach $10 a litre, then I imagine the only ones still using it would be the Military (not ours, we're too cheap). The rest of us will be driving electric bikes/cars by then... even the Airlines are struggling at the current cost, nevermind if it were to be 5x what it is now.

As for wages increasing etc... based on my current cage, if I were to use it for commuting it would cost me about $110 per week. @ $10/litre that would be about $550 per week. More than I currently earn. Sure in 10 years I hope to be flying some sort of Air taxi paying me a stupidly large salary to drink coffee and chat up flight attendants, but even then... I'd rather live at the Airport than pay that much on gas.

[davereid]

Petrol MIGHT reach $10 a litre. But who will care ? We can make acceptable motor fuels from coal easily and cheaply.

We can also use coal to make cheap electricity, so the plug-in hybrid offers options.

Sheikh Zaki Yamani, a Saudi Arabian who served as his country's oil minister in the 70's and 80's always cautioned the arab states from allowing the price of oil to get much above $80.

He argued that there were plenty of alternatives to oil, but as long as the price was low enough, they would never be investigated.

However, he cautioned that the reverse would apply if oil got too expensive, with his famous quotation

“THE Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.”

[awayatc]

Petrol MIGHT reach $10 a litre. But who will care ? We can make acceptable motor fuels from coal easily and cheaply.

We can also use coal to make cheap electricity, so the plug-in hybrid offers options.

Sheikh Zaki Yamani, a Saudi Arabian who served as his country's oil minister in the 70's and 80's always cautioned the arab states from allowing the price of oil to get much above $80.

He argued that there were plenty of alternatives to oil, but as long as the price was low enough, they would never be investigated.

However, he cautioned that the reverse would apply if oil got too expensive, with his famous quotation

“THE Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.”

Good post, and very true......but for us in the transition period life will change, and definitely become more expensive as a result.
Some changes may be for the better.....we will again have to rely more on local work and workers......things may need to be repaired again.....
Kiwi ingenuity may make a comeback.
Being Rich or poor is only relative to the wealth of your peers.....
We could actualy improve our sense of wellbeing.....

[Naki Rat]

It may well be that once oil producing countries grow too big to feed their population (and some are very close already) we can sell them pure beef or unspoiled food for $100/kilo or we find billions of $ worth of gas or oil or gold in NZ.

One thing is for sure; the clever first world countries will turn things to their advantage as they always do and the third world countries will get even poorer. We have to decide which side we want to be on. We can make and sell things that people want to finance our current lifestyles or we can become a Jamiaca or Fiji, a third world country that has nice beaches where the tourists can come and laugh at the poor people.

The basic flaw in these arguments is that you maintain a mindset that assumes that international trade and travel will remain commonplace. The incontrovertable fact that oil will continue to increase in price will put a totally different perspective on personal travel and international trade to what we have now. In particular New Zealand is geographically more isolated than just about anywhere else on Earth so the economics of exporting, particularly primary produce, will fail in the next few decades. Trade will revert back toward a situation where goods are sourced on a far more local level and those that can live their lives in a self-sustainable and self-supplying way, on a personal to a national basis, will be the ones that will survive in the long term. Doomsayer stuff maybe, but forewarned is forearmed!

For anybody with a real interest in where our oil dependant world is heading check out http://www.endofsuburbia.com/, or find a download of the movie "The End of Suburbia". The whole movie is also available here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3uvz...eature=related It is very watchable and although North American based is just as relevant to the rest of the world. Enjoy, and be informed.