Non-renewable resources, especially oil and coal, are quickly re-enforcing this notion of what you see is what you get. Maybe more quickly than most of us know. Climate Change, even on a slow day, gets more attention than other pieces of the healthy Earth puzzle. This ailing patient has, I’m afraid, more than one malady to overcome.
Picture yourself holding up a globe at the front of the classroom, patting it affectionately, and saying to the class,
“Everything we have is right here. Everything we need is right here.”
But do we really fathom the implications of these comments?
You set down the blue and green globe and pick up a clear plastic globe with a hole in the top. Into this hole you pour sloshing greasy liquid from a one liter measuring container. Exactly one liter.
“Pretend this is all of the oil within Earth as of 200 years ago...every single bit of oil that is in cracks and pools under the land and oceans, or seeped deeply into rock.”
Now, turn the plastic globe and empty out enough to fill the measuring container back up to the one-half liter mark.
“In the past couple hundred years, people on Earth have used oil for all sorts of things, like plastic and gasoline and fuel to heat houses. Guess how much people have used? Yup. One-half. We have used up one half of all the oil we know to exist on Earth.”The concept is Peak Oil. Since extraction of oil began (history of oil production: here and here) for its myriad purposes, more has been produced each year than the year before. Globally, always more than the year before. Peak Oil is the term for the point in time where more oil cannot be extracted in a certain year(s) than the year before. The extraction rate has peaked. Of course because oil is unevenly distributed within the Earth, this varies from nation to nation. (The US peaked in 1970.) But, globally, it means that only one-half the original resource remains under ground.
We still retain this one-half. But the first half was “easy” and “cheap” oil. Drill and flow. Of the balance, the expenses will rise until it is uneconomical to extract. It will take more energy to extract a barrel than that barrel is worth. Much of the second half of oil will remain untapped for this reason.
It is now estimated by many that the Earth reached peak oil in our current decade, specifically within the last couple of years. Other estimates give us another decade, and so on. Regardless of the exact year, Peak Oil is upon us. M.King Hubbert, a geophysicist, calculated in the 1950‘s the peak year of United States' oil with his bell curve. He was very close in his prediction. Oil peak charts now refer to him as one of the first to outline upcoming oil data.
Our difficulty arises, of course, when consumption outpaces a declining availability of oil. When will oil become too expensive for common use? The Earth’s population is seven billion. Will conservation offset population growth? Will technology intercede to offset lack of oil? Will there be government restrictions on oil and natural gas usage? Will the United States take a lead in dealing with oil reduction? Will "developed" countries find themselves in need of cultural behavior changes? Will there be another misguided cry of, "What's our oil doing under your sands?"
Plain old statistics to ponder: Current
“A Crude Awakening” is a compelling and sometimes entertaining documentary on 20th century usage of oil. It would be worth everyone’s time to set aside an hour to watch this 2006 film.
Plain old statistics to ponder: Current
- 1 oil barrel = 42 gallons
- World oil extraction ~ 85.47 million barrels/day
- World oil consumption ~ 85.53 million barrels/day
- United States extraction ~4.95 million barrels/day
- United State importations ~9.78 million barrels/day
- US gasoline use only ~ 8.9 million barrels/day
“A Crude Awakening” is a compelling and sometimes entertaining documentary on 20th century usage of oil. It would be worth everyone’s time to set aside an hour to watch this 2006 film.
