Are You a Believer Yet?

Call it what you will, peak oil, energy security or oil addiction, officials around the world are rapidly awakening to the threat of oil depletion. Given the usual sloth-like reaction times of political networks the rate at which official awareness is growing is almost shocking. Here's hoping that the growth is, like oil consumption rates, exponential.

In a stunning interview [...] Fatih Birol, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency (i.e. the intergovernmental body created after the oil shocks of the 70s to coordinate the West's reaction to energy crises) effectively says that peak oil is just around the corner, and that without Iraqi oil, we'll be in deep trouble by 2015:

If Iraqi production does not rise exponentially by 2015, we have a very big problem, even if Saudi Arabia fulfills all its promises. The numbers are very simple, there's no need to be an expert.

Within 5 to 10 years, non-OPEP production will reach a peak and begin to decline, as reserves run out. There are new proofs of that fact every day. At the same we'll see the peak of China's economic growth. The two events will coincide: the explosion of Chinese growth, and the fall in non-OPEP oil production. Will the oil world manage to face that twin shock is an open question.(More)

Whatever you thought were the pressing issues in your life, take a few minutes to weigh them against this future, just a few years off, and see if they don't shrink. There is important work to be done, think deeply about how you fit into it.