What is Peak Oil?
Although there’s still plenty of oil left, it is a finite resource and demand is rapidly outstripping supply. We are close to Peak Oil - the time when we will have used up half the world’s recoverable oil. After this time, the amount produced reduces year on year. As a result the price will start to rise, having enormous knock on effects for the way we live our lives. Cheap oil is essential to the way most of our food and medicines are produced; the way we travel and heat our homes. In fact, our whole infrastructure and economy is dependent on it. Unless we reduce our oil dependence, food shortages, economic collapse and more wars for oil are all on the cards.
Won't Peak Oil help us prevent Climate Change?
Unfortunately not. As the cheap stuff becomes harder to find, we’re switching to more polluting sources such as tar sands which produce more Co2, and there’s still more than enough fossil fuel left to cause catastrophic climate change.
This sounds pretty bad - is there anything we can do?
There is nothing that can replace oil as a cheap, energy rich, and easily transported fuel. Our communities currently have no resilience to Peak Oil. And there are no easy techno-fixes on the horizon. The best solution is reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. This approach is a win-win, as it reduces CO2 emissions as well.
You can find out much more about Peak Oil, Climate Change and how the Transition Movement is addressing these challenges by visiting some of the websites on our Links page.