Has Petroleum Production Peaked, Ending the Era of Easy Oil? 26 January, 2012
Posted by Willy De Backer in Decoupling, Degrowth, Economic growth, Energy, Peak oil.trackback
“A new analysis concludes that easily extracted oil peaked in 2005, suggesting that dirtier fossil fuels will be burned and energy prices will rise.” (Source: Scientific American)
This Scientific American article summarises a report in Nature magazine confirming that the age of cheap oil is over and that as a result we live in different times. Will The Anthropocene give way to the Post-Oil, Post-Growth era?
Another interesting quote from this report makes the link between peak cheap oil and the current economic crisis:
“King and Murray [the authors of the report] argue that global economic growth itself may be impossible without a concurrent growth in energy supply (that is, more abundant fossil fuels, to date). "We need to decouple economic growth from fossil-fuel dependence," King adds. "This is not happening due to industrial, infrastructural, political and human behavioral inertia. We are stuck in our ways."
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