Publication date: 2008-10-01
First published in: The Open Geography Journal
Authors: J. Leigh
Abstract:
Oil has stoked the industrial society for the last century as the cheap energy source. However, ominous signs of oil depletion, in fulfillment of M. King Hubbert’s “Peak Oil” theory, may be eerily encroaching upon us and may portend “The Olduvai Theory’s” dramatic consequences. The implications of dwindling cheap oil supplies are catastrophic for maintaining industrial societies’ economic development. Also, the anticipated economic development of the less developed countries would be critically threatened without cheap oil. These less developed countries have already set their will towards becoming industrialized, with an economic development similar to that of the Western more developed countries. However, the possibility of oil depletion may show there are considerable barriers to thwart the universalization of economic development to the world’s less developed as oil prices skyrocket. It may all work together to facilitate civilization clash in frantic efforts for each political bloc to secure the world’s oil resources, or at least the reliable supply of oil at the best price. Nations may weld together to forge continent-wide civilization superpowers, for advantage in a looming new worldwide post-oil era, when cheap readily available oil may not be taken for granted. That could prove to be a test of how the newly formed superpowers will cooperate or compete.
Published in: The Open Geography Journal, Volume 1, pp.15-24 (10)
Available from: Bentham Open