We extract. We consume. We bury.
The bank account runs dry.
We will consume in 100 years what it took the planet 100,000,000 years to produce. We consume the energy of million solar years each year.
Our entire way of life is built on the fact that we pay nothing for the work of the planet (and sun) for hundreds of millions of years. Fify bucks for a barrel of oil is nothing compared to the cost of producing that much stored energy.
There is no alternative to oil. We can't run the world we've created on nuclear power or solar or biomass or fuel cells.
Fortunately, there is a symmetry between hydo-carbons and carbo-hydrates. But in seeking a carbo-hydrate-based energy system, we will no longer be able to live on the luxury of the asymmetry of the 100,000,00 to one ratio.
After oil, the ratio will drop to 1:1. A year becomes a year. Each year we will only be able to expend the energy of a single solar year.
