Peak oil is not the point where we use up all the oil. It's actually ptretty much the exact opposite. It's the point where production is at it's all time absolute peak. From there of course, the only way is down.
Most of the informed opinion I've read is that this decline is unlikely to be precipitous. The supply curve is broadly symmetrical. Hence if conventional supplies peaked in 2005, you'd expect production in 2030 to be roughly what it was in 1980. We seemed to get by ok on that, although there were fewer people wanting a share of it back then.
Peak Oil has fallen somewhat off the radar lately. The glut of US unconventional supplies has allowed us to put our heads back in the sand.
Hydrofracturing though is the equivalent of rooting through your ashtray once your supply of golden virginia has gone, to find the longest stubs.
Oil companies will get all the oil that is economically recoverable out and into the fuel tanks of the world, and we will bless them for it for about the same reason that someone with a serious opioid habit will bless the guy that calls round with a stolen telly for them to fence.
It's easy to blame the oil companies or the politicians or whatever, but how many of us would really vote for someone that promised to do what's actually required?
So blame everybody, but that's just the way things are. We're hard wired to respond to immediate crisis, not to warnings of dire consequences somewhere in the future.
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