Essay: Cause and Effect, Peak Oil
In the not-so-distant future dwindling crude oil production capability will cause economic devastation on a large scale. This is not what I personally believe will happen, but what could be considered a worse case scenario. Peak Oil is a theory that was introduced in 1956 by Marion King Hubbert that is used to accurately predict the rate of oil extraction of a single oil well, oil field, region, country, and most recently applied to the entire world. Peak Oil is defined as the idea that the rate of oil extraction from a well follows a bell curve, starting off slow when the well is first discovered, rising exponentially as more equipment is used to extract the oil, reaching a peak, and then equally as quickly declining in output due to the increased difficulties of lower pressure, lower quality of oil, and other such issues. This is a proven concept on the individual oil well, field, region, and nation oil production level.
For the purpose of this essay it is assumed that the theory of peak oil applies to global production rates as well. It is a common misconception that reaching peak oil means that the world is running out of oil. In reality, that is far from the truth. Peak oil simply means that the maximum production RATE of oil has been reached, and then irreversibly declines from that point on. This would have a disastrous effect on the world.