jesus conserves

The Wall St. Journal wrote a story last week about peak oil. [“Peak oil” is when global production of oil reaches a maximum and begins decline as supply runs out.] That The Wall St. Journal ran an article discussing peak oil is interesting for a few reasons:

1. The Wall St. Journal is a conservative, right-leaning media outlet. They are not known as champions of environment. For the most part, they take a position advancing business interests over the environment. It stands to reason that their discussion of peak oil is not focused on environmental issues but business issues: “What will the world do when we run out of oil?”

2. The reason they covered peak oil was the release of a study by The Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security. The taskforce was formed by, among others, Sir Richard Branson, the owner of Virgin Airlines. A former chairman of Shell Oil and King Abdulla are quoted in the article–both speak of peak oil as fact. The Wall St. Journal openly reports that peak oil is around the corner.

3. They publish a predicted date for peak oil: 2015. Many conservative news outlets discuss peak oil as a distant threat that nobody can predict when will happen. Definitive dates are sometimes hard to come by. The Journal cites “Peak Oil Consulting” as the source for the 2015 date.

4. Maybe the most surprising part about the article is that The Wall St. Journal is reporting about peak oil at all. American media outlets and American politicians have been largely silent about peak oil. Not only do we have no plan for what to do when global demand far surpasses supply, but we don’t even talk about it. It’s as if we’ve collectively buried our heads in the sand. To paraphrase an old teacher: We don’t need to believe in peak oil; peak oil believes in us.

Why should Christians care about peak oil?

Simply put, because wars will be fought for oil. The United States consumes more oil than any other country. If we don’t do anything to change our patterns, we will be forced to fight for oil. If we are to remain a moral, Christian nation, we must start making contingency plans for when there is no oil. As it stands now, the U.S. military is our only contingency plan…