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Environmental literacy for the sustainable designer
Published in Rob Fleming, Saglinda H Roberts, Sustainable Design for the Built Environment, 2019
Rob Fleming, Saglinda H Roberts
Lastly, the burning of oil releases many chemicals and toxins into the air, most notably CO2 which contributes to global warming. Based on these and other negative aspects of the use of oil, sustainable designers strive to either find alternatives to using oil on projects or try to eliminate fossil fuels all together by using solar or wind power. Fossil fuels are still extremely profitable. However, extraction of fossil fuels is becoming more and more expensive and inconvenient as we approach “peak oil.” Peak oil is the hypothetical point in time when the global production of oil reaches its maximum rate, after which production will gradually decline. The reader should be aware that there are still vast amounts of oil left in the ground. While oil is a finite resource, the bigger concern is when it becomes scarce it becomes expensive, and that has a huge impact on economies and ultimately the quality of life. The upside of more expensive oil is that expensive renewable energy solutions like solar and wind become more cost competitive and therefore more likely to be adopted.
The impact of peak oil on trade globalisation
Published in Stephan Pfaffenzeller, Global Commodity Markets and Development Economics, 2018
Peak oil refers to the period of time in which the maximum of daily worldwide conventional crude oil production is reached. Global conventional oil production has been stagnant between 2005 and 2008 (Hamilton 2008, 2009). According to the World Energy Outlook 2012, until 2035 any net increase of global oil production will be entirely driven by unconventional oil (IEA 2012). This assessment of the International Energy Agency is tantamount to the fact that peak oil is imminent. Some experts argue that peak oil may already have occurred (Aleklett et al. 2010).
Nonrenewable Resources: Oil and Minerals
Published in John C. Ayers, Sustainability, 2017
Oil is a nonrenewable resource and the most important transportation fuel. Peak oil theory postulates that global oil production will eventually peak and then decline, causing oil prices to sharply increase. This will eventually happen for all nonrenewable resources for which we find no suitable substitutes because per capita consumption rates are increasing exponentially in parallel with population growth. Peak production will occur soon for phosphorous used for food production, and has already occurred for uranium used for energy production.
Reducing the ecological footprint of urban cars
Published in International Journal of Sustainable Transportation, 2018
Bonnie McBain, Manfred Lenzen, Glenn Albrecht, Mathis Wackernagel
Two of the key uncertainties associated with the transport sector are the timing of peak oil and the timing of a global carbon price. Mohr and Evans (2008) found that conventional oil production will peak somewhere between 2010 and 2025; however, they also note a high variability in the estimated timing of peak oil in the literature.