Gerry Alanguilan

I've never really talked about serious matters outside of comics in this blog, but there is a worldwide crisis that even I can't ignore writing about, not when it has concerned me greatly in my personal life.

I'm talking about OIL, and it's seemingly unending price hike in the world market. It's pretty much affected everyone, wherever you may be, whatever social circle you may belong to. Oil is directly tied to fuel and power supply, and in our overwhelmingly industrialized and electronic world, fuel and power are things that we can no longer do without.

In  a cross section of an ordinary daily life of an average individual, he would get up in the morning and put on his clothes (washed and ironed by a washing machine and an press iron), eats his breakfast (cooked either by a stove that uses electricity or LPG), goes to work in a bus or car (powered by gas) and works in an office that uses lights, computers, elevators, fans or air-conditioners (powered by electricity), and on his way home he passes by a grocery to buy food, supplies, and other household necessities (produced through machines run by power or gas, delivered by trucks that use gas). At home that night the family watches TV in a house that uses lights, fans, stereos, computers and aircons (all powered by electricity).

What would happen if there is no longer power and fuel?

I've been doing a lot of reading about the subject, and one of the things that greatly concerns me is that this period that we are having now, this is the period that is being considered the peak of oil production. From this time forward, the production of oil will decrease as the supply of it slowly runs out. Of course, this may take a long time, but but there is less oil now than what we have already consumed.  Oil is a natural resource that cannot be renewed. Once it's used, it's gone. And once it's all used up, none can be found anymore. How do you create it? You need to wait for billions of years of gnawing gnashing of earth for more to be produced naturally.

What would happen as oil slowly runs out? It would become even more expensive as demand for it increases. Imagine yourself not being able to eat for a day, or a couple of days... three days... it will drive you crazy. It will make you desperate, desperate enough to lose all semblance of human morality and civilization and kill just to survive.

This is certainly something an entire country could do if it has become too dependent on oil and has become hungry for it. This could mean war. War on a scale that we have never seen. This means starvation in the most populated cities where supplies can no longer be delivered. We will end up killing each other just to survive. This could very much spell the end for all of us, the very end of our civilization.

A comic book plot? Not really. This is a very definite possibility.

The headline of Manila Bulletin today is "Gov’t appeals: Conserve fuel, power". Indeed, conservation is a theme that has been more prevalent of late. There are many ads and programs of it on TV and newspapers, more than I've ever seen before. People are now very aware of what is happening and are doing something about it.

Conservation is a good... no, a great thing. I feel that I do my own part by not having any kind of gas powered vehicle at all. I don't drive. When I go to town, I walk. This is not something I would recommend to everyone as I'm sure having vehicles is necessary to certain people. But it works for me.

However, I feel that conservation, no matter how good it is to practice, only prolongs our dependence on a resource that is slowly becoming extinct. I hope that conservation buys us enough time to find alternatives to oil as a source of fuel and power. That is really our only choice. We have to find an alternative before it's too late because it is our very survival that is at stake.

Probably it's time, specially here in the Philippines, to reconsider the nuclear option? It can be dangerous, but it can also work. Just as long as our God damned public officials don't treat it as just another project to make money out of, as long as it's another project that our contractors would skimp on the quality to make more money, and man this nuclear plant with competent people who are made aware of the price of incompetence every single day.

Part of our electricity is already produced without the benefit of fuel, like from geothermal plants, dams and so forth, and I think this is a really good thing. More, I say... more of the same, all over the country, if possible. With less dependence on oil to produce electricity, it would be great to promote the use of electric cars locally.

My imagination has been going crazy thinking of things that I can possibly do as an individual. I've been thinking of attaching a bike to a small turbine that produces electricity for home use. I could use the bike to exercise and boil water at the same time. Ilyn thinks it's ridiculous, believing that solar panels are the way to go. I still don't get how my idea could be ridiculous. Is it? Can such a contraption even produce enough electricity to, say, operate an electric stove?

Whatever the case, as this crisis worsens, I think people's lifestyles would need to change. I'm already studying how to be able to live more simply, and use electricity and gas powered items only when it's absolutely necessary. To have a much more simpler life...that is a goal that I set for myself. I don't see myself having much choice.