Making Sense of Peak Oil and Energy Uncertainty

Daniel Lerch

June 28, 2011

There are currently no viable substitutes for oil at current rates of consumption.  Although alternatives to oil do exist for many of its uses, they are generally vastly inferior to oil in their energy content and in the ease of which they can be extracted, transported, and turned into a commericaly-usable fuel.

This is a chapter from The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century’s Sustainability Crises (2010).