I admit I got that one wrong.

The world was supposed to run out of oil, as the doomsayers kept on reminding us not so long ago. But it seems that crisis failed to materialize. So what happened? Was it all just alarmism? Is the crisis still there, only slightly postponed by production increases due to oil shale and fracking?

Most important, could this tell us anything about current concerns about global warming? Could we be wrong about that, too? Have we convinced ourselves to misinterpret the data? In the 1970s, the energy industry was desperate to go nuclear because they (oil companies, coal miners, electricity producers) could see Peak Oil on the horizon. I know, I worked in that industry and I was thoroughly briefed on the coming oil drought. But it never happened.

I guess we can all agree that the supply of fossil fuels is finite, but do we know just how much is left? Can we count on improving exploration and drilling technology will still be able to save our bacon indefinitely? Or will we one day wake up to yet another nightmare? I’ve done a little research on the subject and I can’t seem to get a straight answer. The business majors just say; “See, I told you so!”, and the Greens just say, “Wait, wait, disaster is right around the bend”. But neither seems to be very convincing. All we can say for sure is it ain’t happened yet.

I have formal training in earth environmental systems and processes, the atmosphere and oceans.
But I don’t know that much about structural geology. What does our resident geologist say?