Ecologist lectures on implications of ‘A World Without Oil’

John Kaufmann of the Oregon Department of Ecology visited Gonzaga on Tuesday to discuss the nation’s oil crisis.

“This is not a choice; this is the future,” Kaufmann said at a lecture he gave called “A World Without Oil.”


According to Kaufmann the days of “eat, drink and gas up” are coming to a close quickly. The oil problem is a well-worn topic of conversation in America today due to high gas prices and war. However, the reason the nation is looking at a scarcity of oil is not political.

“Two-thirds of the world’s top oil producing nations have reached their peak in oil production,” Kaufman said. “The height of world discovery of oil wells took place in the 1960s. Since 1983 production has exceeded discovery. For every 30 million barrels of oil that are produced only 6 million are discovered.”

Gonzaga Bulletin