Peak oil expert launches Frostic environmental series

KALAMAZOO–Dr. Kenneth Deffeyes, a famed Princeton geologist who believes world oil production peaked three years ago, will speak at Western Michigan University at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 13.

Speaking in the Fetzer Center’s Kirsch Auditorium, Deffeyes will be the first to speak as part of WMU’s new Gwen Frostic Environmental Studies Seminar Series. The event is open to the public without charge.

In 2001, Deffeyes made the prediction that within the next decade, global oil production would reach a peak, and nothing could be done to prevent it. He made the assertion in his acclaimed book, “Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage.” He updated his book with the 2005 work “Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert’s Peak,” and in early 2006, he announced he believes the world oil production peak occurred in December 2005. Using geology and economics in his writing, Deffeyes details how everything from rising grocery prices to the subprime mortgage crisis have been affected by shrinking crude oil supplies and increased oil prices.

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