Are we running on empty?

Oil prices are spiraling upward with no end in sight. Consumers are pinching pennies to fill their cars with gasoline, and airlines are going bankrupt amid skyrocketing fuel costs. Clearly, OPEC and the ever-rapacious oil companies are to blame for high oil prices, right? Actually, no — you and I are the culprits.

Civilization's insatiable demand for oil is rapidly depleting the oil stores within the Earth. During the past 100 years we have blown through about half of the global oil resources and continue to use it at increasing rates. The world now uses about 1,000 barrels of oil per second. Americans use 25 percent of that, even though we represent only 5 percent of the world's population.

New global oil discoveries peaked in the 1960s, and we now consume about four times more oil each year than we discover. We produce more oil than ever before, but difficulties in finding new oil fields and the reduced output of aging oil wells indicate an imminent peak followed by a relentless decline — a situation known as "peak oil."

Published in: Honolulu Advertiser, 28 September
Available from: Honolulu Advertiser