![Now, this is one peak you've probably heard a lot about. But you may not know that it already happened--about four years ago, according to <a href="http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/is-peak-oil-behind-us/?partner=rss&emc=rss" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>:
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Production of conventional crude oil--the black liquid stuff that rigs pump out of the ground--probably topped out for good in 2006, at about 70 million barrels a day. Production from currently producing oil fields will drop sharply in coming decades, the [International Energy Agency's annual] report suggests.</p>
<p>Although oil may be past its peak, oil use is definitely not going anywhere anytime soon. The IEA is predicting that after a short dip, oil production will continue on a relatively steady plateau for at least another 25 years, as new oil fields are discovered and exploited. But energy demand is still rising, especially from China. Peak oil, in turn, could directly cause peak coal, says <a href="http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2010/11/should-we-be-planning-for-the-end-of-cheap-coal.ars" target="_blank">Ars Technica</a>:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">If oil prices remain high and governments make progress on their emissions goals, there's a possibility that the world has already hit peak oil, and that the next few years will see its use plateau for a while before dropping again. Using these same assumptions, the report also said that we could hit peak coal somewhere within the next 20 years.</p>](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gallery/albums/peak-everything/2-oil.jpg "Peak Oil")
Related Content:
80beats: Cacao Tree’s Genetic Secrets May Bolster the Chocolate Supply
DISCOVER: Beautiful Pools of Pollution, a photo gallery about phosphorus mining
DISCOVER: 20 Things You Didn’t Know About… Oil
80beats: High-Tech Society Drives Demand for China’s Rare Earth Metals
80beats: Bee Collapse May Be Caused by a Virus-Fungus One-Two Punch
Posts Tagged ‘colony collapse disorder’
Is This the Peak of Peak Panic? Peak Chocolate, Peak Maple Syrup, & More
For Honey Bee Awareness Day, Music Video Asks, “Where My Bees At?”
It’s no secret that something mysterious is going on with the honey bees around the globe. Still, who would’ve thought to rap about it?
In preparation for the first-ever National Honey Bee Awareness Day that took place on Aug. 22, big bee backer Häagen-Dazs used the creative efforts of five brothers from Los Altos, Calif. to make a short video raising awareness.
Max Lanman, a 21-year-old senior at Yale majoring in film studies (and the third-oldest Lanman brother), directed, edited and photographed the result of the request, a viral video entitled “Do the Honey Bee.”
In the video, people dressed as bees shimmy and shake, mimicking the ways bees “dance” to communicate with each other. The lyrics extol bees’ agricultural importance, and the beat’s pretty catchy, too.
But don’t take our word for it—check out the video. You just may want to “shake your stinger, bend your knees / Get down real low, and do the honey bee.”
Related Content:
80beats: Honeybee Murder Mystery: “We Found the Bullet Hole,” Not the “Smoking Gun”
Discoblog: Bees on a Plane! 10,000 Bees Swarm an Airplane Wing in Massachusetts
Discoblog: You Can Dance if You Want to, You Can Learn from Different Bees
Image: flickr / david.nikonvscanon
