The Empty Tank

Chapter One

Chapter 1

PART ONE

CHAPTER

1

INSUFFICIENCY

We have allowed oil to become vital to virtually everything we do. Ninety percent of all our transportation, whether by land, air, or sea, is fueled by oil. Ninety-five percent of all goods in shops involve the use of oil. Ninety-five percent of all our food products require oil use.1 Just to farm a single cow and deliver it to market requires six barrels of oil, enough to drive a car from New York to Los Angeles.2 The world consumes more than 80 million barrels of oil a day, 29 billion barrels a year, at the time of writing. This figure is rising fast, as it has done for decades. The almost universal expectation is that it will keep doing so for years to come. The U.S. government assumes that global demand will grow to around 120 million barrels a day, 43 billion barrels a year by 2025.3 The International Energy Agency, the organization set up by industrialized countries to give them advice on oil and other energy matters, is scarcely less bullish. Its 2004 World Energy Outlook forecasts 121 million barrels a day by 2030.4 Few question the feasibility of this requirement, ... read full excerpt from The Empty Tank ebook