Peak Oil And The Internet

I was in Hong Kong when an earthquake near Taiwan took out 6 of the 7 undersea cables and the internet in Hong Kong locked up. All you could get was “Page Not Available” for everything. It took over a couple of days before the

government rerouted the internet, but it took nearly 2 months to fix all the cables. In China the international internet slowed down dramatically for over a month. One advantage was there was very little spam flying round. If anything like that happens after peak oil we can kiss the internet goodbye.

We can nearly get all the information we need off the internet, but if the electricity goes there goes the computer. Modern technology is an amazing thing but it is too reliant on oil so when the oil goes so does modern technology. A pity really but we have to change to fit the future, so if all these modern attachments go we will have to carry on.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire the world went into the Dark Ages and it took nearly a thousand years before modern civilization surpassed what the Romans did. In some instances Roman technology took a lot longer to pass. At the peak of the Empire the mansions of the powerful were elaborate buildings with running hot water and central heating. It took to the modern era to surpass these buildings in comfort design.

What held Rome together? We are not sure how Rome collapsed, many reasons have been put forward. But we know what holds our civilization together. Oil holds our modern civilization together so when the oil goes so do we. And it could happen during this generation alive today.

For more information check out the Blog and our Peak Oil Page for resources on how to survive the coming collapse of civilization.