Post-Peak Oil: Difference between revisions
→Literature
prefix>Import Bot (Import from TV Tropes TVT:Main.PostPeakOil 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:Main.PostPeakOil, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
|||
| (8 intermediate revisions by 3 users not shown) | |||
Line 7:
In a worse case scenario, nations go to war over the last remaining fuel reserves, resulting in a massive global war, the outcome usually being an [[After the End]] setting, or at best, an even crappier world than before.
{{examples
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Mad Max]]'' (or at least ''Mad Max 2'') is a definite [[Trope Codifier]] for this, and a lot of dystopias where oil is valuable as gold are explicit references to the film. It is the oil shortages that began the nuclear war that resulted in the [[After the End]] setting.
* ''[[Last Chase]]'' (1981)
* The story of ''Americathon'' is set in a future United States where the gas shortage of the 1970's grew to a point where the automobile has been completely eliminated, except as a possession one can park permanently and live in.
== [[Literature]] ==
Line 22:
** ''[[Ship Breaker]]'' by the same author, which is set in the same universe. Old oil tankers are broken for scrap, and whatever pockets of oil they still contain are priceless finds that can make a man's fortune.
* ''[[Julian Comstock]]'' by Robert Charles Wilson is set in a 22nd-century America where the oil has run out; the resulting society ends up feeling like a cross between 19th-century America and 4th-century Rome.
** This one is a victim of [[Science Marches On]], as the provable natural gas reserves in the continental United States would have been tapped long before anything like this scenario occurs (to say nothing of the biodiesel project sponsored by the Department of Defense, with the goal of making the US military completely independent of foreign oil
* In ''[[Soylent Green|Make Room! Make Room!]]'' by Harry Harrison, cities effectively become their own totally isolated city states when the oil becomes too rare to use. The only form of travel mentioned are large freighters (shipping food to the millions effectively trapped in cities).
* The future part of ''[[Timescape]]'' by [[Gregory Benford]] takes place in a gloomy England after Peak Oil.
* ''[[Fugue for a Darkening Island]]'' by Christopher Priest takes place in an England where the civilization is collapsing after the oil has run out.
* The backstory of ''[[The Inverted World]]'' by Christopher Priest has the oil running out as a crucial plot point.
* In ''[[Last and First Men]]'' by Olaf Stapledon the end of the current civilization is caused by oil running out centuries from now. This is very early in the story, making almost all of the millions of years of human history described in the book technically post-Peak Oil.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
Line 35 ⟶ 39:
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Frontlines
* ''[[Crime Craft]]'': Peak oil lead to the society (for lack of a better term) in the game.
* ''[[Deus Ex: Human Revolution
* Inverted with perhaps unintentional irony in ''[[Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children]]''. In the original game, Shinra Energy Corporation was literally sucking the [[The Lifestream|life energy of the Planet]] dry in a [[Anvilicious|not so subtle]] ecological metaphor. In the movie, the world having barely avoided destruction and Shinra having been taken down, this energy source is obviously no longer used. So what is former eco-terrorist Barret doing nowadays? "Cloud, I found some oil!"
* The world of ''[[Homefront (
* Implied in ''[[
* The transition to this and the aftermath is one of the main challenges in most [[Fate of the World]] scenarios. Depending upon how well you (literally) play your cards; the transition to a post-oil society can be anywhere from fairly painless to resulting in biosphere collapse and the extinction of humanity. Averted in the Cornucopia scenario, in which fossil fuel reserves are self-replenishing but still cause environmental havoc.
Line 48 ⟶ 52:
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[
== Real Life ==
* It is somewhat debatable how much damage peak oil would do in real life, and it's generally only the fringe that believes that it would cause. The [[
** This is happening now, to some extent. Currently in the US, 30 mpg is considered "good gas mileage" while 40 is considered ''really'' good. Look at articles from the era of the 1974 oil-embargo crisis - the first time since [[World War Two]] that there had been a gas-price shock - and be amazed at the references to 15 mpg "compacts" and how a 25 mpg VW Beetle was spoken of in terms now used for a 50 mpg Prius.
* Technically, ways to produce liquid fuels from gas or coal do exist and resulting product is costly, but within reasonable limits. And there is really much coal on Earth. And even after coal exhaustion, there are ways to produce liquid fuels from biomass, that are in development even now, so-called biodiesel.
Line 60 ⟶ 64:
[[Category:Civil Unrest Tropes]]
[[Category:Cynicism Tropes]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
| |||