Have We Reached Peak Oil?

Global Recession kicks football further down the road

I am also someone who subscribes to the Peak Oil idea, but I think some fundamental things have happened with the global financial meltdown and the US basically being forced into bankruptcy. This will dramatically reduce consumption in the US for some time and will push out the date for Peak Oil. Peak Oil is when demand outstrips supply. It looks like Saudi and Russia still have enough supply coming online over the next couple of years to offset global declines. This is a temporary situation however. The question mark or exclamation point on this will the the undefined extent of the global recession and collapse of the banking system on the demand for oil and how wide spread this recession/depression reaches.

So while I am firmly a Peak Oil person, I think the time line for the actual peak is still a couple of years out for production. And it looks like a dramatic pullback in US demand will give the world a little breathing room to figure out what we are going to do. Sadly we as people wait until everything is a crisis or emergency before we do anything. So I wouldn't bet on anyone learning anything or doing anything to change the course we are on.

The fun part about Peak Oil is the investigation and research into the way things were done before oil was the dominant energy source. Steam power, stirling engines, wind power, and taking advantage of the things provided by environment we live in. So technology has existed prior to oil, and will exist after the demise of oil that will continue to make our lives better and easier, but probably not a pervasively as it is today. It will be an interesting and exciting time to see new technologies move ahead. There is no question that the way we live is dramatically about to change, but I don't believe it has to be the doom, death, and destruction that many in the Peak Oil community make it out to be. People need to draw on the past to see how things were done before and how we can make tomorrow a better future even without oil.