There is also the fact that the amount of energy
that we get back from the oil that we discover is falling.
In the 1930s we got 100 units of energy back
for every one that we put in to extract it.
Completely unprecedented, historically.
Already that's fallen to about 11.
And that's why, now,
the new breakthroughs, the new frontiers
in terms of oil extraction are scrambling about in Alberta,
or at the bottom of the oceans.
There are 98 oil-producing nations in the world.
But of those, 65 have already passed their peak.
The moment when the world on average passes this peak,
people wonder when that's going to happen.
And there is an emerging case
that maybe that was what happened last July
when the oil prices were so high.
But are we to assume that the same brilliance
and creativity and adaptability
that got us up to the top of that energy mountain in the first place
is somehow mysteriously going to evaporate