Planning for the End of Oil

Since the mid 80′s, oil has been playing less and less of a role in the word’s energy system, and we push technologies for new ideas to fuel our energy consumption. Over the course of the last two centuries we have various energy sources peak, as a percentage of overall sources; wood consumption in the late 1800s, coal in the 1920s and oil 25 years ago. At it’s peak, oil represented 50% of overall energy sources; today it is 35%. Based on this information, the rise of natural gas and the rise of renewables as energy alternatives, there is no reason not to believe the end of oil is on its way.

Richard Sears is a visiting MIT geophysicist and a former VP of Shell. In this lecture, he states that we will never run out of oil, not because it is infinite, but because new technologies will take its place long before we ever have the chance to see the last drop of oil; just like the Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stone. What technology will end the Oil Age? Well we will just have to wait and find out.

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