This week in class we have been discussing and reading about the world's dwindling oil reserves. Now as a civil engineering major I have been reading and discussing this fact for almost 4 years now, and more if you count high school sustainability classes. But I think it is still shocking how few people seem to know how much oil is left and how much of a crisis we are on the verge of being in. And the amount of recoverable oil left in the ground is not even the only issue with oil reserves.
The big issue is the growing use of automobiles in the world. Currently the world has used roughly one third of it's oil supply. But that is just with the number of automobiles that have been in use since the beginning. A big problem is that while some countries are leveling off or even decreasing the use of personal cars, other developing countries are expanding. As seen below, the number of vehicles per capita will drastically increase over the next 50 years.
When you look at the data, you can see that while the US is expected to have a similar vehicle per 1000 people ratio (around 70-80%), the numbers for countries like China and India are going to skyrocket from less than 10% to 50 and 25% respectively. Many will counter this data with numbers that show how cars are becoming much more efficient and alternative fuels are being developed. But I do not think this is enough. We will eventually run out of oil, which means higher costs for many oil based products, not just transportation.
What do you think our next step should be? Should we try and stop the growth of personal automobiles? Or should we just find ways to make them efficient enough?
The following images are courtesy of Google Public Data Explorer.
The big issue is the growing use of automobiles in the world. Currently the world has used roughly one third of it's oil supply. But that is just with the number of automobiles that have been in use since the beginning. A big problem is that while some countries are leveling off or even decreasing the use of personal cars, other developing countries are expanding. As seen below, the number of vehicles per capita will drastically increase over the next 50 years.
When you look at the data, you can see that while the US is expected to have a similar vehicle per 1000 people ratio (around 70-80%), the numbers for countries like China and India are going to skyrocket from less than 10% to 50 and 25% respectively. Many will counter this data with numbers that show how cars are becoming much more efficient and alternative fuels are being developed. But I do not think this is enough. We will eventually run out of oil, which means higher costs for many oil based products, not just transportation.
What do you think our next step should be? Should we try and stop the growth of personal automobiles? Or should we just find ways to make them efficient enough?
The following images are courtesy of Google Public Data Explorer.
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