The planet just got a nod from a powerful protector. Military leaders across the entire globe have started worrying about oil shortages.  Their recommended solution is to find alternative fuels, fast.

I first read about this story yesterday, and posted it at my Facebook page. But today I’m reading about it from the perspective of the Brits. According to a story in the Guardian, The US Joint Forces Command delivered a Joint Operating Environment report that is causing some alarm because of its prediction of world-wide shortages of oil by 2015. (I searched for this report online, but could only find the 2010 report, linked below.)

The report is quoted as saying, “While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India.”

The Guardian paints an even bleaker picture of global black outs and citizen unrest.  By 2015 the world could be in a deep depression, caused by a lack of fuel.

We are running out of oil, and the military is planning for it. They want investment in alternative, renewable fuels, now.  The planet wants the same thing, fuels that don’t destroy the inhabitability of the orb.  It is time that we started planning for a future of alternative fuels, and weaning ourselves from the carbon-based fossil fuels.

Homework:

British Reporting: US Admiral Warns of Oil Shortages

2010 US Military Report About Peak Oil