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The party's over: geophysicist M. King Hubbert predicted in 1956 that world oil production would peak in 2000. According to geologist Colin Campbell, Dr. Hubbert was close; the actual peak came during the spring of 2004.

Article Excerpt
James Howard Kunstler has written a book that tells us how he thinks we are going to live in a world without oil. In The Long Emergency, (ISBN: 0871138883) we are informed that the world is coming to "the end of the cheap-fossil-fuel era." And, that will have a profound effect on our entire way of life.

In Canada, cheap oil made it possible for us to get rid of most of our trains and travel in our little personal bubbles; each one with its own gasoline-powered engine. This meant we could let our cities spread out over wide distances. We could live in large homes that were cheap to heat in winter and cool down in summer. We could travel at low cost to holiday locations thousands of kilometres away. We could spend much of our leisure time shopping for inexpensive plastic gadgets in huge shopping malls. We could enjoy an abundance of different foods at reasonable prices year round.

Mr. Kunstler points out that "inexpensive clothing, recorded music, movies, hip-replacement surgery, national defence--you name it," are all made possible by reliable supplies of low-cost fossil fuels.

But, the global supply of oil and gas has peaked. This is usually represented graphically in a bell curve. The production peak is the top of the curve, which we have just reached. That means there's still as much oil and gas left as we've already used, but there's a catch. The fossil fuel that remains is the hardest to get at. It's also the poorest quality and the most expensive to bring to market. In fact, a lot of it will likely never be extracted. Meanwhile, gigantic economies such as those of China and India are booming, gulping down ever larger quantities of a diminishing resource.

Economics...

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