A piece to perhaps set you thinking

A personal view from Ralph.

Seeing a comment to the effect that OPEC could be manipulating the price of oil to respond to the increases of alternatives to oil as the driver of the world's economies, it set me to thinking. And thinking of just what sort of world will that be for my grandchildren and my great grandchildren.

And in truth I was quite shocked at my musings. It is said that fossil fuels are finite and no one can reasonably argue against that scenario. Oil will be gone by say 2050.

That means no flights of jumbo aircraft as how on earth could air travel on the scale we now "enjoy" without AVGAS fuel. Dirigibles will never satisfy the demand. And that means countries being divided from each other in ways we find unimaginable.

Add to that scenario the fact that shipping must perforce dwindle – or will mass nuclear energy be the rule – with all the dangers that could bring – and is there enough enriched uranium? I cannot see that. Oil tankers of course will be scrap without oil shipping. But what of the mass of foods and the like arrive by sea?

Bananas from the Caribbean – gone. Grapes from South Africa – gone. Oranges no more. Pineapples, no way! Wines? I could go on but you must realise just how much foodstuffs sit on the shop counters that all come from abroad. Not to even think of exports of all kinds.

Add to that plastics. Derived from petrochemicals. That too will be gone as a source. Just look around you and see how plastic in all its forms is huge in our lives. Food wraps. Tools. Packaging of all forms. Furniture etc etc etc. A world without such a universal material.

Alternative energy sources such a wave power, wind, solar – all will be so much the rule. Generation of electricity a major factor to fire up the country. But only internally as I cannot see travel away from the land using electricity to drive shipping or air movements. Big gas guzzling 4x4 cars finished.

Coal will fire the electric needs but that too is a finite source- and we import nearly 50% of our usage. This will dry up as shipping drops. Nuclear. Yes, but as we see now with Hinckley, it is emotive and such a long term plan that talk of 20/30 years before new plant can be effective scares me.

Life will be so insular. Lorries that crisscross the roads in vast numbers. How will these be fuelled? Huge tankers with electric motors, I do not see that. 4 million white vans – fuelled by? Milk collection. How?

Post to every house. No way. End of Amazon and the like. End of "you shop we drop"?

It is all a bit scary to imagine it all. And 40 years away is not too long a time. What an inheritance to leave to the young.

And a small but so important an indicator of how life has already changed. My windscreen in the 70s used to crusted with dead insects. Now, driving back from London, no such corpses. All the insects virtually gone, killed off by the widespread use of pesticides. Killed off by the rape of wild flowers in our fields. Meadows – gone.

How many bees do we see in our gardens? How many butterflies? And no sign of swallows or house martins on the telegraph lines.

All so very sad and all so very scary.

Ralph Warburton

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