Peak Oil
Keith | 27 October 08 | Add your comment
I am a firm believer in Peak Oil. Peak Oil is essentially exactly what it sounds like. It is the peak of oil production and extraction. It is essentially the top of the bell curve on the oil production chart. Once we hit Peak Oil and start sliding down the bell curve, oil becomes more and more scarce as the demand and price escalates. Sound familiar?
As a natural resource, oil IS finite. As devolping nations become more and more industrious, and current oil hogs such as the U.S. and China continue sucking up the black gold like sawdust into a shop-vac, we need to understand what relying upon a finite resource means.
The United States hit Peak Oil in the late 60’s. This is a fact. Without getting political, we can argue about off-shore drilling until we’re aqua-blue in the face, but the fact remains: the United States started it’s fall down the backside of the bell curve in 1970. This was ironically the same time we started importing more oil than we exported. You don’t have to be a Greenspan to understand the financial mess of importing 60% (and rising) of your nation’s energy.
The world’s Peak Oil is expected to be reached anywhere from 2 years ago until 10 years from now (approximately between 2006 and 2020). Unfortunately, we cannot put a giant dip stick down a volcano and get a good oil reading. But these scientists and experts have not been wrong yet. With the world energy demand expected to rise some 40% over the next 20 years, it is a fair question to ask where this energy will be coming from.
So, is this just another problem we pass along to our children. We may make it through our lives with oil running the show, but it is ignorant to think it would last much past our lifetime.
What say you?
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