An Introduction to Peak Oil
Jul. 8th, 2005 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
c9Peak Oil is the idea that the world is running out of oil. Obviously, as a non-renewable resource, we've always been running out. But the area of concern is the amount remaining.
Currently crude oil is responsible for powering over 99.99% of the powered vehicles on the planet. Cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, boats. It brings us basically everything that's plastic. Those two areas alone (which only represent a small portion of what crude oil is responsible for) would utterly destroy modern capitalism were they to disappear. Many researchers believe (with evidence) that we will hit peak oil in the next few years -- or we may have already.
Currently crude oil is responsible for powering over 99.99% of the powered vehicles on the planet. Cars, trucks, airplanes, trains, boats. It brings us basically everything that's plastic. Those two areas alone (which only represent a small portion of what crude oil is responsible for) would utterly destroy modern capitalism were they to disappear. Many researchers believe (with evidence) that we will hit peak oil in the next few years -- or we may have already.
1965 was an incredibly significant year for modern civilisation. Because, although this fact went largely unremarked for three decades, it was the year in which our rate of crude oil discovery stopped rising and began to fall. It was the year of peak discovery, and since 1965 we have been steadily finding less.
