The GalleryFront.com peak oil art catalog

Welcome to another edition of the GalleryFront.com art catalog. In the first edition we focused on “Artas an Investment.” This time we are going to focus on something a bit more broad — Peak Oil. Thisissue is a catalog with a message. Very little of the art in this catalog is from the secondary market.Most pieces here were created specifically for the catalog. Artists from GalleryFront.com were asked tocreate something with a message. We, and the artists involved in this project, believe that Peak Oil is apotentially important issue in the world today. We simply want to bring attention to it. Many of theartists are from the U.S., but this is an international project with artists from six continents. One artist fromAfrica said the following:“Pardon my forwardness, but I think I am qualified to create a piece of artwith real feeling as we are living ‘it’ right now. We have constant power cuts and two hours of water a day. Our basic commodities are short. Fuelis very scarce and not readily available. I’m running my computer systemon a generator this minute with rare and very expensive fuel.”What is Peak Oil? In the 1950s a man named M. King Hubbert was working for Shell Oil in Houston, TX.He presented a theory in 1956 to the American Petroleum Institute suggesting that United Statespetroleum production would peak in the next 20 years. He was exactly right, and in 1973, partiallybecause of our oil production peak, the United States experienced a dire energy crisis.Using Hubbert’s prediction techniques, one findsthat in the very near future the world supply of oilwill also be declining, despite increasing demand.There are currently 98 oil producing countries in theworld, of which 64 are thought to have passedtheir production peak, and of those, 60 are alreadyin terminal production decline. The image to theleft illustrates the United States falling intoproduction decline in the 1970s. Over 60 countriesare now facing the exact same production decline.Peak Oil is the date when the peak of the world’sconventional petroleum production rate isreached. Some think we’re beginning to gothrough it right now. When Peak Oil occurs,demand will be higher than supply.For you economists out there, many believe that the laws of elasticity act a bit more strictly in the theoil market because nearly every other market depends upon oil. Demand can’t decrease until other options are available. For demand to decrease as price increases, we would need other energy andtransportation options. Nuclear power plants take over 20 years to build, and currently our transportation infrastructure is built almost entirely upon oil. There are no competing options thatcould support between six to eight billion people. Everything you own depends upon oil.Some predict that Peak Oil will result in mass-starvation, the twisting of governments of countries thathave large oil reserves, wars between first-world countries seeking oil, global depression, mass-immigration, and the collapse of global civilization. They argue that these results can only bemitigated through conservation and through energy alternatives.

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Peak Oilers’Peak Oilers’Peak Oilers’Peak Oilers’Peak Oilers’ arguments are compelling. Take any one item youhave right now, your shoes for example. Petroleum is pulled fromthe earth, moved and processed. Polymers that make up theindividual parts of your shoes are created and shipped overseas.They are made into the basic materials that will make up your shoes, and are moved again, probably to east Asia, to be madeinto your shoes. They are then shipped back around the worldand eventually end up on your feet. Right now, in the UnitedStates, only 2% of all shoes are created in the U.S. The remaining90-some-odd percent are moved around the globe thousands ofmiles before you purchase them. It takes a tremendous amountof cheap energy to move products thousands of miles.Everything you own is awash in oil.A similar energy trail could be followed for every product we consume, especially our food. In theUnited States, and much of North and South America, it takes between five and ten calories to moveevery one calorie of food to peoples’ tables. Most of that energy is gotten from oil. This does notinclude the other oil-based products integrated into our food: fertilizers, pesticides, combines, tractors,plastics, and the like.It is common knowledge that if gasoline prices raise to $5.00 per gallon, our economy would struggle.When you consider that most countries have the same energy, product, and food infrastructures as theU.S., a significant increase in the price of oil would influence the prices of everything throughout theAmericas, including food. On July 18, all of the major news outlets reported a 2% to 8% leap in foodprices in the United States, siting gas prices as a major cause.

cover art

Come and Join the Light

Art by Luis Perez

To me, the good news is that none of the bad things that could happenneed to happen. Innovation is required, however. We should begin tocreate a new energy infrastructure, then maybe we can avoid all of thepotential economic problems that could arise. I, along with the artistsrepresented in this catalog, encourage you to think of ways to help usavoid potential catastrophe. Conserve. Support products that are localand don’t require gallon upon gallon of oil to be moved to your area. I’lleven go so far as to suggest what our politicians will not: do not buy anSUV until you can own one that is all electric. The technology is here. It isnot as expensive as you might think. If it is too expensive for you, write aletter to an automaker and wait until the cost is affordable.I hope you enjoy the art that our artists havecreated. Some of these pieces can be foundon our website GalleryFront.com, but muchof it was created solely for this catalog. Ifyou have any questions about the art, don’thesitate in contacting us at 720.249.2853 or accounts@galleryfront.com.Have a nice day,Jeremy Mooer Owner – GalleryFront.com720.249.2853People in the U.S. talk a lot about illegal immigrants. Well, what happenswhen we have 150 million immigrants trying to get into the United Statesbecause there is no affordable food in their own countries? These arequestions that our own intelligence agencies have asked. Our government’s reaction seems to have been the building of ‘ImmigrantDetention Centers’ to handle a huge influx of illegal immigrants.