The Meaning of Life 67
it became common to see large black pillars of oil shooting
up from the ground when a drill struck oil. We had not yet
invented the car, so we used this new type oil from below
the ground to light our lamps. It was easy to find new wells,
so the oil flooded the market, and the price of one barrel
dropped to just $0.1 [1 barrel = 42 gallons = 159 liters]. But
it’s no longer this easy to find new oil wells.^42
Oil used to be algae on the bottom of lakes. Since the
world’s geography always changes, these algae sank to a
depth of between 7 500 to 15 000 feet [2 300 to 4 600 m]
where they were turned into oil. This process happened
90 and 150 million years ago during two periods of warm
climate, hence the fossil in the name fossil fuel. Because
Mother Earth manufactured all oil millions of years ago, the
world has to realize the supply of oil is not endless. Sooner
or later, the supply will reach a peak known as peak oil.^42
The basic idea behind peak oil is a curve called Hub-
bert’s peak. The geoscientist Marion King Hubbert, who
used to work for the petroleum company Shell, developed
the curve. Hubbert’s peak says that for any given geograph-
ical area – from an individual oil-producing region to the
planet as a whole – the oil production follows a bell-shaped
curve. The top of the curve is the important peak. After the
peak has passed, the supply of oil will decrease.^42
Compared with opening a tap for water, extracting
oil from a traditional oil field is more complicated. In the
beginning, it’s easy to extract the oil. But after the peak,
when the oil workers have pumped up about 50 percent,
they have to use several methods to get the last drop. One