Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: What the Price of Oil Means for the Way We Live - Couverture rigide

Cheap oil = Foreign imports. Huge houses. Big cars. Binge flying.

Expensive oil = Local food. Local industry. Small cars. Fewer flights.

Our civilization as we know it is entirely dependant on cheap oil. And that civilization is about to get the shock of its life. Our systems of trade, finance, shipping and manufacturing, of labour and international relations are all going to be affected as oil supplies dwindle and prices fluctuate wildly. Soaring energy costs are not going to get thrown into permanent reverse; but, as a direct result, the machinery of globalization certainly will.

For years Jeff Rubin has been accurately predicting how the world's dwindling oil supply will affect oil prices. Now he shares his predictions for what is going to happen next, including how oil prices will bounce back after the current economnic crisis and why permanently cheap oil is now a thing of the past. He explains why the conventional rules of economics don't work when it comes to oil markets and shows why prices will continue to rise in the coming years, even as demand increases. He reveals how globalization and developing economies are accelerating depletion of oil reserves and pushing prices ever higher, and in turn shows how this will lead to a new inflation, with higher food prices and transport costs. But there is good news: as Rubin shows, skyrocketing oil prices will lead to a new kind of localised living, in which we'll reinvigorate our national manufacturing industries, embrace local food production and make positive changes in where and how we live and work.

Cheap Oil: Foreign imports. Huge houses. Big cars. Binge flying.

Expensive Oil: Local food. Local industry. Small cars. Fewer flights.

What do subprime mortgages, Atlantic salmon, SUVs and globalisation all have in common? They all depend on cheap oil.

But in a world of dwindling oil supplies and steadily mounting demand, very soon there will be no such thing. Take away cheap oil and the global economy is going to get the shock of its life.

Whether we like it or not, our world is about to get a whole lot smaller.