Our world faces many threats and problems today. Possibly, the two largest problems that the world faces today are terrorism and poverty. Although these are obviously two major threats to the world, I believe that the threat of peak oil is the world’s largest threat. Peak oil is the point at which global petroleum production has reached its maximum level and begins to drop. During the last few decades as China and India have begun to modernize and develop at astronomical rates they have consumed large amounts of the world’s oil supply.
In 2005 the US Department of Energy released the Hirsh report which outlined several conclusions about peak oil. The main conclusions from the report were that peak oil will happen (some scientists predict within a decade) and that when it does happen it will devastate the world economy. In my opinion, I believe it will devastate the economy because 96% of transportation on the planet is powered by petroleum. Without oil trade between countries would simply not occur.
Another reason why I believe peak oil is bigger and more important problem than terrorism and poverty is because peak oil is a problem that is fixable. It doesn’t matter how much money you put in to trying to stop terrorism or poverty or how many programs you create to stop terrorism or poverty, you will always have terrorism and poverty, it is inevitable. However this is not the case with peak oil. By creating renewable energy sources and clean energy you can make a world that is non-dependant on oil. Without a doubt peak oil is the largest problem that our world faces today.
