This is Chapter 2 of a booklet I am writing with assistance from folks at TheOilDrum.com.

Chapter 2: Is This a False Alarm?

As we look at the answers to these questions, we will see that the production decline discussed in Chapter 1: What Is Peak Oil? appears to be nearly immediate. Available methods for offsetting this decline appear to be too little, too late. This time the alarm is real.

1. It seems like people thought we were running out of oil in the 1970s, and then all of our problems went away. Why is the situation different now?

Let’s look again at the graph of oil production for the US-48 states, Alaska, and the North Sea: Continue reading →