Battleangel

Boing Boing posted a VERY informative article on Peak Oil and what to do about it here. Well worth a read. Also deals with the future of nuclear power and renewables. Quite extensively updated and it shows that more and more people are thinking long and hard about “new” sources of energy. At least more and more people are concerned and inform themselves about things like “peak oil”.

The United States passed its own oil peak — about 11 million barrels a day — in 1970, and since then production has dropped steadily. In 2004 it ran just above 5 million barrels a day (we get a tad more from natural-gas condensates). Yet we consume roughly 20 million barrels a day now. That means we have to import about two-thirds of our oil, and the ratio will continue to worsen.

The U.S. peak in 1970 brought on a portentous change in geoeconomic power. Within a few years, foreign producers, chiefly OPEC, were setting the price of oil, and this in turn led to the oil crises of the 1970s. In response, frantic development of non-OPEC oil, especially the North Sea fields of England and Norway, essentially saved the West’s ass for about two decades. Since 1999, these fields have entered depletion. Meanwhile, worldwide discovery of new oil has steadily declined to insignificant levels in 2003 and 2004.

Boing Boing also starts down the road of Abiotic oil. Or at least one nutcase reader sends in his ideas. It is a road I would not recommend.