Branson warns that oil crunch is coming within five years

That's odd. As I understand it, the annual global rate of oil consumption is nowhere near the numbers that you stated.

"Since the early 1980s, discoveries have failed to keep up with the global rate of oil consumption, which last year reached 31 billion barrels of oil. Instead, companies have managed to expand production by finding new ways of getting more oil out of existing fields, or producing oil through unconventional sources, like Canada’s tar sands or heavy oil in Venezuela."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/business/energy-environment/24oil.html

Edit---The above article is not correct.

US alone-20,680,000 bbl/day

Check out America's rate of consumption as compared to the rest of the world. Holy crap!

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption

Amen to that,lady. I reached the big 60 last April, and I still feel like 17 because for the past 18 months I walked 3 miles and back to work every day. That fundamental exercise routine enabled me to work 7 nights a week for the latter 7 and 1/2 months, effortlessly. From what the RealAge .com website tells me, walking, swimming etc builds proteins in the cells which preps humans for resistance(weight) training. For a man who never exceeded 5 feet 10 inches, I was able to walk the figure 8 path around 2 local lakes in as little as 42 minutes, even whistling, without breaking my stride 8 months of the year here in central New York. When I was 27 and on a vegan diet, I was so light I could run 3 miles after dinner in the Summer. Exercise keeps you alive and kicking. I haven't driven my own vehicle in 2 years now. It's cheaper to do
as my Dutch brethren do, and simply ride a bike.

Why do you hate on the Branson? He has made quite a life for himself and much of it is for the good of society. I think he is actually one of the good elite. You don't see Cheney, Bush, or Murdoch telling you about an oil crunch do you. This guy is on your side--and he got rich doing it. Don't hate the fact that he is a mastermind.

not hating, just being realistic. Actually, Richard Branson may be one of the few elite who will be able to survive. Because once money is gone, what do you have but your brains? And Branson does have some of those.

Fictional ? I think you could save time by walking to the Fantasy section of your local bookstore. In 1999 Showtime aired a series which lasted only 1 season entitled Total Recall 2070. It was a synthesis of the movies Total Recall and Blade Runner. It portrayed a vision of the future in which global warming made it rain most of the time,. Asian people predominated a high tech world of cities where the entire side of high rise bldgs. was used for video advertisements., Space travel to Mars' domes colonies was routine. And the use of highly sophistocated android machines did the menial work humans do now. Corporations ran everything, taking up most of the role Government does now. The only remant of the Gummint (as Homeboy D. Clown, from the TV series In Living Color would call it) was the Citizens Protection Board, and the Courts to settle disputes, and enforce the laws. The uber rich own the Corporations and controlling interest in Wall St, and all the markets. Ronald Regan, the Bushes et al saw to that. It was a trend they favored, so they accelerated their usurpation. The uber rich aren't interested in saving anyone but themselves, their machines, and anyone whom they can buy as their property. They own more bought dogs than you'll ever see in kennels down on all 4s.

You obviously have not read the book. Go check it out.

it's not just cars that use oil....everything needs oil to operate....think about it.

Couldn't agree more!!

Couldn't agree more, Jan

What bigdaddymelvin said :))

I was born in 1949 as one of the boomers, so I was driving a Ford 289 V8 when the Arab Oil Embargo hit during the Winter of 1973 into 1974. I recall seeing $.28 as the last recorded price on a pump at a station that had gone out of business trying to compete with another station too close to it. That cheap price reflected the value of money when Silver was in circulation. And that price stability which maintaining a semi precious metal as money accomplished, kept the price of gas very low for decades. I would not be surprised if that gas station went out of business 10 years before the Arab Oil Embargo in 1964 when the last of the 90% Silver coins were minted, because $.28 was likely the gas price still in 1944 during WW2. Even then, I couldn't miss the irony of it, because, like the Arab Oil Embargo of 74, WW2 was the only other time during the 20th century when Americans were subject to rationing because of the National Emergency. Don't forget the purchasing power of the modern dollar is less than 10% of what it was in 1941, and less than 2% of what it bought in 1907, today in the year 2010. When the price jumped to $.75 during the Arab Oil Embargo, it reflected more a devaluation of our dollar, by the OPEC oil cartel, because in 1974 the Ike Dollars, and Kennedy Halves, were still being minted in the traditional size of genuine Silver dollar/half dollar coins, but made of cheaper metals. If you compare the value of Silver now to the price of gas, it's roughly the same as it was, simply adjusted for inflation. Because when the Gummint abandoned the Constitutional standards for our money, and let their metal values float as commodities on the world market, they created a precious metals barometer to inversely measure the devaluation of our currency. It's shocking to see gas priced at $3.5-$4.00. but that's why Bush/Cheny invaded Iraq. To double the price of Saudi Arabian oil. Watch the Michael Moore documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 sometime, and you'll see what I mean. The Bin Ladins are a Multi Billionaire Saudi Arabian Oil magnate family whom Bush was an unregistered foreign agent working for-to promote their agenda.

thank you...when did our government become so overrun with ADD?

What they crave to do is Peak Oil Story us to death to drive the price up then spring electric cars on us at 1000 miles range => leaving the price of crude where they jacked it to pre-electrics. They'll bleach our hair on both ends then. Hell is just a giant see-saw?

Good question - the possible answer is pretty gloomy.

What will happen to the U.S. Dollar ? 1982 was the last year in which the Gummint produced Copper cents, which was the last vestige of the U.S. Dollar
established by the Constitution in 1789. Ever since 1983, they've been stamping copper coated aluminum slugs. I picked up one cars ran over. It's no different than a steel slug. And it's not like it's the first time they've ever coined slugs. They did that during 1943, which was the last extreme National Emergency. I own steel cents made out of recycled artillery shell casings. They needed Copper for the electrical wiring used in planes, ships, and tanks. It's simply that the current National Emergency has no end in sight now because now we're always at war as Orwell predicted we'd be back in 1943.

Meaning no offense, friend, but where have you been ? The Gummint hasn't been anything but bankrupt since 1983. How can it be solvent when the "secret" National debt was debt clocked at $64.Trillion in August 2007 ? Do you have any idea how much money that amounts to ? The entire GDP of the USA produces in 5 years would only approach, not match, that amount. In other words, if the USA were a citizen, it would have to hold it's breath and exist on nothing for 5 years, and devote all its resources in paying that debt off to even glimpse the end of carrying that debt. An impossibility. The debt was only $4 Trillion when Jimmy Carter left office. Because it can't be solvent, with the black hole debt the Reaganites have been running up since then, by borrowing from the future to pay for today, how can it produce honest money ?

The Foreign owned bankster cartel which owns the "Fed" has been printing their substitute Monopoly parlor game currency in place of U.S.Treasury Notes aka Silver Certificates, since 1970 when the 2nd last vestige of the U.S. Dollar disappeared. Ever since the "Fed" ate the Treasury, they've been pawning off their debt like blind people selling pencils on a street corner during the last Great Depression. I'd ask: When will people ever learn that paper is anything but money ? But you'd need to refer to the quotes of P.T. Barnham before you could understand the meaning of the answer. The real U.S. Dollar disappeared 80 years ago after the Ponzi scheme which caused the 1929 Stock Market Crash saw 40% of the Gold bullion coins exported to Rothchild owned French and Swiss banks. That the shorted money supply caused the Great Depression. FDR had to devalue the dollar to 60 cents, and abandon the Gold Standard. A Dollar is only a dollar when it's comprised of 100 Copper cents. Welcome to the machine.