Now you can be the protagonist of the petroleum era: explore and drill around the world, corrupt politicians, stop alternative energies and increase the oil addiction. Be sure to have fun before the resources begin to deplete.
and in each of those decades (the 1950’s and 1960’s) more oil was consumed than in all of mankind’s previous history
— President Jimmy Carter, 18 April 1977
What people need to hear loud and clear is that we’re running out of energy in America.
— ascribed to George W. Bush, May 2001
(via jamiepaakkonen)
Peak oil doesn’t mean “we’re about to run out of oil.” Even defining it as “demand outstripping supply” is incomplete. Peak oil means the world has reached a point where half of the planet’s oil has been burned up (see, “climate change”). The remainder will be increasingly hard to reach and more expensive to refine. America hit its national peak in the early 1970s. The North Sea has passed peak. Several of the world’s giant “elephant fields” are near or past peak. This is a simple fact of geology about which there’s no disagreement among most experts (the outlier: the oft-quoted and highly-paid-by-industry Daniel Yergin). Peak oil was being used in ads by major oil companies and speeches by their CEOs in the mid-2000s. As with climate change, the debate is over details; in this case, when will peak hit and what will be its effects?
— Rogue Columnist (via azspot)
Fortunately or unfortunately, neither solar power nor firewood nor dried manure can replace hydrocarbons in the next 20-25 years
— Putin told a joint news conference with Vanhanen, when he added that despite international efforts to find green energy solutions, dried dung and other alternative sources could not replace fossil fuels in coming decades. - Putin Thanks Halonen for Purification Plant YLE News 2010.02.10
Considering the many productive uses of petroleum, burning it for fuel is like burning a Picasso for heat.
— Big Oil Executive
A third of humanity doesn’t want to ride bikes anymore; that has profound geopolitical implications.
— Anne Korin, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (May 1, 2005)
