This arrangement may seem a bit unethical....wherby the west tries to control the resoucres and gets asia to buy them for their exports and also gives a poor deal to people in the resource rich countries.
This is not entirely correct. Asian countries buy most of their oil directly from the oil producing/mining companies, which in the Middle East are Middle Eastern (often state owned) companies; it is large Asian oil refining companies that take delivery of oil just like western oil companies. However, China for example has such a large demand for oil that it often cannot secure enough directly from oil producing countries and then resorts to buying on the open market, where of course western oil companies come into play.
What the large western oil companies do is secure access to certain amounts or percentages of the pumped oil. And the presence of western military in the region is there to 'protect' those oil pumping operations and 'encourage' certain deals between the countries and oil refining companies.
leak from the IEA yesterday saying that peak oil is basically upon us
No, peak oil is based on geologic science. However, like global warming it is not an exact science and whether you believe in it is up to you.Isnt "peak oil" just a media invention. If you are saying that we've reached peak oil, then you are essentially saying that there is no oil left in the world that isnt currently being tapped. What a load of rubbish - there's loads of oil in the Atlantic, just at present the technology isnt there to fully exploit it. As technology improves, this will be tapped.
You are also saying that oil usage will not change. I'd say that it's near certain that electric car technology will improve at a similar rate to the way mobile phone technology improved between the 80s and 90s. Where there's a demand, the technology will improve more rapidly than people imagine.
We could end up in a situation whereby in 20 years time, nobody is interested in oil and the middle east is bankrupt.
How will all the electricity be created?.
Hydo electric power and nuclear power plus some renewables such as wind, wave. None require oil.
Remember the 80s when mobile phone batteries were similar size and weight to car batteries? And they'd only power the phone for a short time. Within 10 years, the batteries were down to a few grams in weight and powering a phone for days. When there's a market, technology can react very quickly. I believe this will happen with cars - if oil were production were to stop today, within 10 years, we'd have electric cars that are much faster and cheaper than petrol cars.
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