It took us 125 years to use the first trillion barrels of oil.
We’ll use the next trillion in 30.
So why should you care?
We can wait until a crisis forces us to do something. Or we can commit to working together, and start by asking the tough questions: How do we meet the energy needs of the developing world and those of industrialized nations? What role will renewables and alternative energies play? What is the best way to protect our environment? How do we accelerate our conservation efforts? Whatever actions we take, we must look not just to next year, but to the next 50 years.
So is this something you should be worried about?
The fact is, the world’s been finding less oil than it has been using for twenty years now. Not only has demand been soaring, but the oil we’ve bben finding comes from places that are tough to reach.
Inaction is not an option.
The two texts above come from ads that are coming out in papers (I saw it for the first time this morning as a two page spread in the Financial Times) and on TV. So they are pretty visible.
And guess what – these are made by Chevron, the second largest US oil company. You can find them on this website , with the two paper ads there (PDF):
http://www.willyoujoinus.com/downloads/manifesto.pdf
http://www.willyoujoinus.com/downloads/twobarrels.pdf
The full text of the first ad is worth providing (emphasis mine):
Energy will be one of the defining issues of this century. One thing is clear: the era of easy oil is over. What we all do next will determine how well we meet the energy needs of the entire world in this century and beyond.
Demand is soaring like never before. As populations grow and economies take off, millions in the developing world are enjoying the benefits of a lifestyle that requires increasing amounts of energy.
In fact, some say that in 20 years the world will consume 40% more oil than it does today. At the same time, many of the world’s oil and gas fields are maturing. And new energy discoveries are mainly occurring in places where resources are difficult to extract, physically, economically and even politically. When growing demand meets tighter supplies, the result is more competition for the same resources.
We can wait until a crisis forces us to do something. Or we can commit to working together, and start by asking the tough questions: How do we meet the energy needs of the developing world and those of industrialized nations? What role will renewables and alternative energies play? What is the best way to protect our environment? How do we accelerate our conservation efforts? Whatever actions we take, we must look not just to next year, but to the next 50 years.
At Chevron, we believe that innovation, collaboration and conservation are the cornerstones on which to build this new world. We cannot do this alone.
Corporations, governments and every citizen of this planet must be part of thesolution as surely as they are part of the problem. We call upon scientists and educators, politicians and policy-makers, environmentalists, leaders of industry and each one of you to be part of reshaping the next era of energy.
I am not trying to promote Chevron or anything, but I find this campaign to be something of a tipping point: if anyone else said these things, we on this site would find them unobjectionable, and possibly “progressive”. Now, this being BigOil, we are understandably suspicious. That does not mean that we should discount this, quite to the contrary:
- it is of fundamental importance that peak oil be talked about by the very companies that are the least susceptible to be dismissed as loonies on the topic, as they have the most interest in the short and medium term to keep it under wraps and make the corresponding windfall profits;
- by acknowledging publicly, visibly the concept that oil is now scarce and that something must be done about it before it’s too late, they make themselves accountable for their actions. Any promises to act in favor of a new energy balance that are not kept, and conversely, any behavior that is not compatible with that new perspective should be criticised ruthlessly, simply by holding them to their own publicly professed beliefs.
So we should endorse Chevron’s approach fully, and put pressure on them to actually act on them in measurable ways, including in their lobbying actions.
- As a start, they should be asked how they reconcile these ads with political funding of a party that denies that there is a looming problem with oil scarcity;
- Other BigOil companies should be asked to publicly comment these ads and state their opinion on the topic of peak oil, oil scarcity, and what they intend to do about it.
If we can get BigOil to find business opportunities in peak oil, it will give all of us a chance to go through the coming period in a better shape.