Emailing "Kuwaitis Predict Peak Oil by 2014"
Everyone knows that oil is a finite, non-renewable source of energy. Exactly how long oil will last is the subject of much debate -- how many more years will we have until the world runs out of oil? Most scientists believe the answer is "less than 100," meaning that for our younger readers, the end of oil may come some time in your children's lifetime. Perhaps more important than the "end of oil" concept, however, is the "peak oil" concept.
The peak oil concept has been around for a while now. Broadly, it describes a point in time when oil production in a particular place peaks, and after that date, oil production begins a decline as the oil field dries up. The United States had its peak oil decades ago, and has been importing oil ever since. Earlier this year, the U.K. Industry Taskforce for Peak Oil and Energy Security, headed by Richard Branson,
predicted that peak oil will happen in 2015. Now, scientists at a Kuwaiti university have used statistical models to predict when global peak oil will happen. Using models from 42 oil-producing countries, the scientists believe world
peak oil will take place in 2014, three years from now.
There is some controversy surrounding these numbers, with many oil producing nations (especially Saudi Arabia) claiming that peak oil production is not as important as peak demand. Nonetheless, peak oil
deserves some attention. Basic economic theory holds that after peak oil takes place, the price of oil will rise dramatically until it is all gone. For countries that are
heavily reliant on oil, this has huge implications for transportation infrastructure, politics, and economic competitiveness. The data center business isn't immune either. The data center business is heavily reliant on the cost of electricity, which in the United States is largely coal-based. How the price of electricity will be affected by peak oil hasn't been closely studied yet, but the geopolitical changes brought by peak oil will make data centers both more critical and more vulnerable to humankind at the same time.