Petroleum depletion and biofuels

First of all, let's get something straight: the world is running out of petroleum. Yes, there is some being produced by natural processes, but, no, that doesn't compensate for what is being used. What makes me suspect that we are going to run out sooner than people like? Things like this article. If you didn't read the preceding link, let me sum it up for you: it seems the International Energy Agency was pressured by the United States government to adjust the reports of oil production and reserves to make it look like there was more oil available than was actually available. And the accuracy of oil reserves accounting needs to be scrutinized, like this report on Kuwait's reserves concludes. The Air Force is planning ahead, and the rest of the world should be, too.

Of course, there is the problem that petroleum replacements rely heavily on other fossil fuels, which are also in finite supply. As fossil fuels start being used as petroleum replacements, their scarcity will increase. This will mean that not only transportation costs, but everything that relies on fossil fuels will be more expensive: including what we eat. A lot of the food the world consumes depends on cheap and readily available fossil fuel products. We as a species have gotten into some bad habits by using things like fertilizer (largely made from natural gas) to compensate for farming techniques that are degrading our topsoil. Thus, biofuels are problematic: the crops used (corn in North America being a prime example) are already using fossil fuel inputs in their production and producing fuel from them means diverting them from the food supply, producing fuels in this way exacerbates fuel scarcity, further degrades the environment and drives up food costs.

This is why I am happy to read that there are ways to make biodiesel that are quite renewable, although the scale and convenience will never equal that of petroleum. The answer in the long term is to become more energy efficient, plan ahead and work on repairing the damage that has already been done to the environment. None of this is impossible, even replenishing the topsoil can be done.