"Current debates over where and how to drill for oil in this country soon may be rendered irrelevant by a nation desperate to maintain its quality of life and economic productivity. War over access to the diminishing supply of oil may be inevitable unless the United States and other countries act now to develop alternatives to their dependence on oil.""We need an energy bill that encourages consumption."
- George W. Bush, Texas Republican (2002)
"Sooner or later, we sit down to a banquet of consequences."
- Robert Louis Stevenson (ca. 1856)
If we continue... to consume the world until there's no more to consume, then there's going to come a day, sure as hell, when our children or our children's children are going to look back on us - on you and me - and say to themselves, "My God, what kind of monsters were these people?"
- Daniel Quinn, Author (2000)
From "The Party's Over" - Richard Heinburg
|
In 1956, the geologist M. King Hubbert predicted that U.S. oil production would peak in the early 1970s. Almost everyone, inside and outside the oil industry, rejected Hubbert's analysis. The controversy raged until 1970, when the U.S. production of crude oil started to fall. Hubbert was right. | Around 1995, several analysts began applying Hubbert's method to world oil production, and most of them estimate that the peak year for world oil will be between 2004 and 2008. These analyses were reported in some of the most widely circulated sources: Nature, Science, and Scientific American. None of our political leaders seem to be paying attention. If the predictions are correct, there will be enormous effects on the world economy. - Kenneth S. Deffeyes |