Marginalia
November, 2004
We've built a civilization on cheap oil. but the weels will run dryIndustrial economies are built on hydrocarbons: wood, coal and oil. Today oil represents 40 percent of the world energy market. But petroleum supplies are finite. Theoretically, it's possible, using estimates of known reserves, to calculate when the world oil supply will peak. Such estimates, though, are notoriously inaccurate. "Ninety percent of reserves are held by countries, not companies," says David Goodstein, a Ca...
