Peak Oil is You
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Page added on May 16, 2010
Media, public, governments unprepared for the End of the World (As We Know It)
Did Global Oil Production Permanently Peak in 2008? Until 2008, world energy forecasters had always assumed global oil production would keep up with economic growth. According to classic economic theory, as world economies grew they would demand more oil, and oil companies would respond by investing in more exploration and development. ”Peak Oil” was considered decades away.
Beginning around 2005, however, world oil production began to hit a brick wall, and by 2008 global oil demand actually exceeded supply. With only a 2% shortfall of supply compared to demand, oil spiked to $147/barrel, and U.S. gasoline prices soared to over $4/gallon.
That same year, the International Energy Agency for the first time published a “bottom-up” oil analysis, evaluating each of the world’s major oil fields to see if production actually could continue to increase.
After looking at the oil field data, the IEA revised its forecasts of future oil production downward, yet still took a very optimistic official view, by using rosy projections of as-yet-undiscovered oil fields.
2 Comments on "Media, public, governments unprepared for the End of the World (As We Know It)"
Kenz300 on Sun, 16th May 2010 11:39 am
We need to move to alternative energy now.
Wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels are the future.
Can we develop them fast enough or will the rising price of oil shock the world economy into a recession or worse?
Tom on Mon, 17th May 2010 12:38 pm
Well Kenz, while I agree we need to start implementing alternative energies, we’ll probably never get them up to snuff in time to prevent a collapse of globalized civilization. My view is that locally produced biofuels and wind farms will give individual communities a fighting chance, but globalized civilization… we’ve missed the boat on that one. So grab a gun, a six pack, and a girl or two and watch the world begin to change ^_^.