Peak Oil

There are many arguments that take respective sides for and against the idea of Peak Oil . One common argument for the belief in peak oil is based on the idea that oil is a finite resource , it is mined from under the ground and sooner or later it will run out (Siegel , 2008 . However non-peakists ' or those people who do not believe in peak oil claim that even if there was such a peak , it will not come in the near future and will in fact take hundreds more years to come and so

there is no cause for alarm . Some claim that no energy crisis can occur , because the technological researches being conducted currently are bound to find other sources of oil or alternative energies that can replace oil (Savinar , 2007

Another contested point in the peak oil theory is the role that oil prices play in it . The peakists argue that the consistent rise in oil prices is proof that oil is becoming more and more scarce , this is of course drawn from the simply economic concept of supply and demand (Siegel , 2008 . However , non-peakists beg to differ and say that the oil resource cannot simply be encapsulated by an economic theory when it is clearly just as much a political resource (Savinar , 2007 . Non-peakists argue that the rise and fall of oil prices do not merely depend on global demand any more than it depends on global politics (Savinar 2007 . Those countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia who have an abundance of oil do not need to be dictated upon by market demand and could just as well hoard their supply to raise global demand without actually having any deficiencies in the supply in to gain political leverage

However , clearly even if this was true what remains to be a fact is that matter in the earth is conserved . Even if there is an abundance of oil at the moment and a decline in supply will not come until after several centuries , such a time will certainly come . Still , it is reasonable to argue that technological advances are likely to be able to find solutions to this problem . The universe is near infinite and ventures in space exploration are hopeful to find sources of energy that can be mined from other planets . Surely it can be ascertained that oil exists elsewhere in the universe and it only takes proper equipment to mine it Therefore , the consequences that the Peak Oil theory warns of may never actually come to pass

References

Savinar , M (2007 . Are We 'Running Out ? I Thought There Was 40 Years of the Stuff Left . Retieved May 31 , 2008 from http /www .lifeaftertheoilcrash .net

Siegel , J (2008 . Why There May Still Be A Future In Biofuel Investing Retrieved May 31 , 2008 from : http /www .energyandcapital .com...