AGE OF EXUBERANCE: The centuries of growth and progress that followed the sudden enlargement of habitat available to Europeans as a result of voyages of discovery; a period of expansion when a species takes exuberant advantage of the abundant opportunities in an eminently suitable but previously inaccessible habitat. (Catton)

AGRICULTURE: The process by which we use soil to convert petroleum into food. (Bartlett)

CARRYING CAPACITY: The maximum population of a given species which a specific habitat can support indefinitely (under specified technology and organization, in the case of the human species. (Catton)

CORNUCOPIAN PARADIGM: A view of past and future human progress that disregards the carrying capacity concept, pays no attention to the finiteness of the world or to differences between takeover and drawdown, and accepts uncritically the myth of limitlessness. (Catton)

ENERGY RETURNED ON ENERGY INVESTED: It takes energy to acquire or develop energy resources. A potential source that contains more energy expended in the effort to acquire it yields an energy profit. One that takes more energy to acquire than it ultimately yields is not an energy source at all, but rather an energy sink. (Heinberg)

ENERGY SUBSIDY: Energy from sources other than sunlight applied to the growing of crops; e.g., fossil energy (in excess of the human energy displaced by its use) used in operating farm equipment, energy used to move water for artificial irrigation, the energy content of synthetic fertilizers applied to the soil, etc. A view of past and future human progress that disregards the carrying capacity concept, pays no attention to the finiteness of the world or to differences between takeover and drawdown, and accepts uncritically the myth of limitlessness. (Catton)

FOSSIL FUELS: Energy-rich substances created by geological transformation of the remains of organisms that lived long ago; including coal, petroleum and natural gas. (Catton)

HUBBERT, M. KING (1903 - 1989): A geophysicist who worked at the Shell research lab in Houston, Texas. Hubbert predicted that oil production in the United States would peak in the late 1960s to the early 1970s. He became famous when this prediction came true in 1970.

HUBBERT PEAK: The theory of the Hubbert peak or oil peak is attributable to the geophysicist M. King Hubbert, who devised a mathematical model to estimate the rate of petroleum extraction. According to this model, the rate of production of oil is determined by the rate of new oil well discovery; a "Hubbert peak" in the oil extraction rate was forecast to be followed by a gradual decline of oil production to nothing.

Based on his model, Hubbert forecasted (accurately) that, following from the peak of well discovery in 1948, oil production in the contiguous United States would peak in the late 1960s, based on a total production of 150 billion barrels, or in the early 1970s, based on a total production of 200 billion barrels. It actually peaked in 1970, and has been decreasing since then. (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)

Since the mid-1960's, geologists have used Hubbert's model to forecast the peak in world oil production. Due to difficulty in obtaining accurate data the forecasts vary somewhat. Some early projections had peak production having already occurred, and these seem to be false. Some of the geologists known as the pessimists forecast the peak in the range of the present to 2010, while those known as the optimists forecast in the range of 2010 to 2020. (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)

HUMAN EXEMPTIONALISM: The notion that human beings are so fundamentally unlike other living creatures that principles of ecology (and perhaps many of the other principles of biology, too) are inapplicable to us. (Catton)

HYDROCARBON MAN: A metaphor for the moment in human history when oil, supplemented by natural gas, dethroned coal as the principal power source for the industrial world. By the end of World War II, oil’s ascendancy was complete. Oil became the basis of the great suburbanization movement that transformed both the contemporary landscape and our modern way of life. In transforming ourselves into Hydrocarbon Man, we have become so dependent on oil, and allowed oil to become so embedded in our daily doings, that we hardly stop to comprehend its pervasive significance. (Yergin)

OVERPOPULATION: Population in excess of carrying capacity; population so numerous in proportion to resources that standards of living are lower than they would be if populations were less numerous. (Catton)

OVERSHOOT: (v.) to increase in numbers so much that the habitat's carrying capacity is exceeded by the ecological load, which in time must decrease accordingly; (n.) the condition of having exceeded for the time being the permanent carrying capacity of the habitat. (Catton)

PEAK OIL: A term used to describe a maximum reached in the production of oil. The concept applies at both the local level when an individual well or oil field reaches a production peak, and at the aggregate level for a larger group of fields. Often fields are grouped by country for analysis.

Once an oil reservoir has been spotted, it is prepared for production. At the beginning, production is small because the required infrastructure has not been developed and the oil cannot easily flow. Step by step, more wells are drilled and better facilities are installed in order to get the oil out. At some point, the continuous depletion of the field makes it more and more difficult to increase production, even resorting to improved technology and/or more drilling. At a given moment, production reaches a maximum and starts decreasing, while deposit depletion continues. Once production goes down to a level where the cost of operation exceeds the economic benefits of the crude produced, the field is abandoned. (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)

PHANTOM CARRYING CAPACITY: Illusory or extremely precarious capacity of an environment to support a life form or a way of life; that portion of a population that cannot be supported when temporarily available resources become unavailable. (Catton)

RENEWABLE RESOURCES: Usable substances produced by ongoing processes such as organic growth that takes place at rates commensurate with actual or potential rates of consumption; also usable energy obtained directly or directly from contemporary solar inputs, rather than withdrawn from finite quantities of past solar inputs. Examples of renewable energy sources include flowing water, solar, wind and plant matter. (Catton)

TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS: A metaphor that illustrates the suboptimal use of even destruction of public resources by private interests when the best strategy for individuals conflicts with the common good. The term was popularized by Garrett Hardin in his 1968 Science article “The Tragedy of the Commons.”

The tragedy of the commons occurs when individuals, in using a public good, do not bear the entire cost of their actions. Each seeks to maximize individual (read: private) utility, and ignore costs borne by others. This is an example of an “externality.” The best (non-cooperative) strategy for individuals is to exploit more than their share of public resources. Because every rational individual will follow this strategy, the public resource will become overexploited. (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com).

More on Hydrocarbon Man

It is oil that makes possible where we live, how we live, how we commute to work, how we travel—even where we conduct our courtships. It is the lifeblood of suburban communities. Oil (and natural gas) are the essential components in the fertilizer on which world agriculture depends; oil makes possible to transport food to the totally no-self-sufficient megacities of the world. Oil also provides the plastics and chemicals that are the bricks and mortar of contemporary civilization, a civilization that would collapse if the world’s oil wells suddenly went dry. (Yergin)

More on Peak Oil

The existence of peak oil has far reaching consequences not because of its own existence, but because of the delicate balance in which production and consumption interact with each other; ever since the discovery of oil as a convenient energy source, the consumption rate has been globally increasing. The reason for this is manifold, but two main reasons can be outlined:

• Population growth: During the 20th century, went from 1.6 billion people to just over 6 billion people. That is a yearly growth of about 1.33%. Currently the growth rate is around 1.5% per year, which means population doubles roughly every 46 years.

• Industry shift: The 20th century has seen the abandonment of coal as primary energy source, and the birth of new technologies--private transportation, air industry--which are as of today completely dependent on oil.

This rise in global consumption has been—nearly--always met by a production increase. Because of the reasons outlined above, energy demand is not expected to decrease or even stabilize, making the arrival of peak oil a very disrupting force. (http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com)

Sources:

Catton, William. Overshoot, University of Illinois Press, 1981

Yergin, Daniel. The Prize, Simon & Shuster, 1991

RENEW Wisconsin,
Madison, WI
June 2004

"It is oil that makes possible where we live, how we live, how we commute to work, how we travel-even where we conduct our courtships. It is the lifeblood of suburban communities.

Oil (and natural gas) are the essential components in the fertilizer on which world agriculture depends; oil makes possible to transport food to the totally no-self-sufficient megacities of the world.

Oil also provides the plastics and chemicals that are the bricks and mortar of contemporary civilization, a civilization that would collapse if the world’s oil wells suddenly went dry." (Yergin)