Abstract
Most of the progress in human culture has required the exploitation of energy resources. About 100 years ago, the major source of energy shifted from recent solar to fossil hydrocarbons, including liquid and gaseous petroleum. Technology has generally led to a greater use of hydrocarbon fuels for most human activities, making civilization vulnerable to decreases in supply. At this time our knowledge is not sufficient for us to choose between the different estimates of, for example, resources of conventional oil.
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Acknowledgements
We thank S. Ulgiati, R. Kaufmann and C. Levitan for discussions, J. Laherrére for insights into the functioning of the oil industry and for directing us to the recent ASPO data.
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Hall, C., Tharakan, P., Hallock, J. et al. Hydrocarbons and the evolution of human culture. Nature 426, 318–322 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02130
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature02130
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