Peak Oil Defined

Many people are unaware, or simply don’t understand the idea of ‘Peak Oil.‘ Peak oil is an issue that is coming to the surface of much environmental debate, and could result in the economic collapse of many industries. It can easily be said that our planet runs on oil. And what that means is that products you purchase and consume are either made of oil, transported by oil, or made by oil. That is, many clothing articles are made of oil. Nearly all machines in factories are dependent on oil. The food you eat is transported by oil.

Peak oil, then, is the point in time when the maximum consumption rate of global oil production and use is reached. Once that point in time is reached, the rate of production enters terminal decline. This is not to say that the global consumption rate will begin to decline, although it will begin to enter a phase where production cannot meet the rate of oil consumption. This means that if global oil use is not reduced prior to the point of peak production, a world energy crisis is sure to be the outcome. The availability of oil will fall dramatically, and prices will continue to rise to epic heights. We are seeing this right now and have been seeing the price increase rather quickly over the last few years.

The Hubbert Peak Theory

M. King Hubbert began reflecting on this theory in 1956 in an attempt to predict that US oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970. Hubberts theory, which is now called the “Hubbert peak theory”, has since been used to investigate and potentially predict the peak oil use and consumption of many other countries. and has also proved useful in other limited-resource production-domains.

At this point in human civilization, this dependency on oil probably cannot be reversed. Other options are readily available, however governments and industry giants are not interested in supporting them in the name of MONEY! Similar to the rejection of the KYOTO plan by many large players in the world…..due to one simple fact: the ECONOMY will suffer! To that I say SO WHAT!

Before I fly off the handle here, I’ll leave you with a few links to do some research of your own on the effects that peak oil will likely have on our ever growing population that seems to think the supply of oil is endless, and we have nothing to worry about.

Peak Oil Research Links

Think about it now, prepare yourself……and your children for what is coming!