Friday, February 18, 2011

Good morning,

Just a few years ago Iran announced the discovery of a new
billion-barrel oil field on their territory. This, and recent
discussion of the oil in ANWR, more expensive oil pools
under the ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico and even less
reliable resources in the form of the Canadian oil sands
and the oil shale fields of Colorado and Wyoming have pro-
mpted me to mention a phenomenon that has been much debated
recently. Peak oil.

Please scroll down to read more about this and what it means
to you.

Thanks for reading,

Your Living Green editor

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If you haven't heard the term "Peak Oil" yet you will hear
about it...more and more frequently in the years to come.
In the 195os, geophysicist Dr. M. King Hubbert predicted
that oil production in the USA would reach its peak around
1970 and then go into a state of decline. He was absolutely
right. He also predicted that global oil production would
peak around the late 90's/early 21st century.

Dr. Hubbert also warned that not only would the world have
to face declining oil production, but also the increasing
cost of extracting what oil remained after the readily ex-
ploitable oil fields had gone into production decline. There
is no doubt that the cost of oil production in recent times
has been huge.

Are the exorbitant prices at the pump the result of this,
or of market speculation and short-sightedness in oil pro-
specting and production?

While you are thinking about that consider this:

We are consuming more oil globally than ever before and the
trend will continue.

Most plastics and other indispensible tools of the modern
world like fertilizer are made using oil.

Oil production and consumption have serious negative impacts
on the environment.

It is not a renewable resource.

Is peak oil and the huge economic impacts that will follow
it right around the corner as Dr. Hubbert predicted? Or will
new resources like the Gulf of Mexico and ANWR, and new tech-
nologies like super-deep drilling put it off for another 20,
30 or 50 years?

These are important issues to think about. Yes, there are
renewable/alternative energy programs in place; but given
the major role that oil plays in our lives; whether these
new, cleaner technologies can be broadly implemented before
we hit the real crunch is very questionable.

The time is now to start thinking about and making changes
to a less oil-centered and oil-dependent life.