Peak oil is coming, and we’re unready

Has the world already reached peak oil, a time of permanently high oil prices and shortages that will profoundly change our way of life? The answer, I think, is likely yes, but the proximity of this catastrophe is not the most important question to ask.

Oil is a finite natural resource; sooner or later, the supply will peak. Jeroen van der Veer, chief of Royal Dutch Shell, earlier this year predicted 2015 as the year the world reaches peak production. John Hess of Hess Corp. said: “An oil crisis is coming in the next 10 years. It’s not a matter of demand. It’s not a matter of supplies. It’s both.”


Whether peak oil is already here or on its way, we’ll have to deal with it.

The more important question, then, is this: Are we ready for the inevitable? The answer, I’m convinced, is no. And our unreadiness is not for lack of information; it’s moral and philosophical. Put plainly, it’s because we Americans do not recognize limits. We live in a fantasyland whose borders go far beyond the oilfields, whose psychological geography is critical to map out a future our nation is blindly headed for.

Dallas Morning News