Going, Going...

The question about peak oil is pretty simple. Oil is a finite resource. Our demand continues to increase. Eventually, it stands to reason, we are going to run out. After that, we will look back and know on exactly what day in history all the oil fields in the world produced the most oil.

We seem to be right around the peak of oil extraction -- the US, it seems, topped out in the 1970s. Drillers have recently found new ways to get oil from wells already deemed unproductive -- these methods are sort of like blowing air into the bottom of a glass to free the dust. Because of this US production has gone up of late -- kind of like finding $20 in your back pocket -- except it's billions of barrels of oil.

There are debates about how much the world has in reserve. There are debates about how much oil is left to be found.

It seems to me these are all just questions of semantics and procrastination. Some things simply end. We may try to stall or change our relationship with oil -- but we are merely diverting ourselves from moving on.



Read more Signe Wilkinson

Calculation request of the morning -- how long would it take for us to use it all, given our current rates of increase of consumption, if we suddenly found the entire core of the earth was filled with oil?

I have also have been wondering where the pockets in the earth go -- when they are void of what filled them.