Frying the World in Oil? Thursday 31 January 2013, 6:30 PM

[Bill Bartlett]

David Bowden and Douglas Newman at Café Sci2Frying the World in Oil?Thursday 31 January 2013, 6:30 PM, at Brooklyn's near LoDo DenverAbout the topicUntil recent years, the prevailing understanding of peak oil, defined as the fundamental curves of oil discovery, production, and depletion, was that the world was close to maximum production, soon to begin an inexorable decline. In the long term, that inevitable scarcity of a finite resource, and subsequent higher prices, does threaten the core economic activities of developed societies worldwide.However, technical innovations such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have unlocked previously inaccessible hydrocarbon resources, boosting America's petroleum output. As a result, reports from industry and the US Energy Information Agency now challenge that peak oil timeline, saying domestic production will be stable or rise for many years to come.Clearly petroleum supplies will not decline in the near term. But larger questions posed by natural resource analysts and climate scientists revolve around how much more fossil fuel, of any type, can be burned without a substantial rise in CO2 concentrations and global temperatures. Will our advanced technology and unquenchable thirst for energy ultimately threaten the very ecosystems upon which human survival depends? Find more about this event at:  http://cafescicolorado.org/CafeSci2%20Bowden%20Newman.htm

[Author]

Posts