“We only have X years left to save the planet.” “The world population is at carrying capacity.” “New technology will permanently disemploy millions of people.” There are many breathless predictions that are made over and over again, no matter how many times they turn out to be wrong.
In a recent column, George Will reminds us of another one: “We’re running out of oil.”
The history:
In 1914, the Bureau of Mines said U.S. oil reserves would be exhausted by 1924. In 1939, the year a global war powered by petroleum began, the Interior Department said the world had only 13 years of reserves. The postwar boom was thirsty for oil. And in 1951, the Interior Department reported that the world had 13 years of reserves. In 1970, there were an estimated 612 billion barrels of proven reserves. By 2006, after an additional 767 billion barrels had been pumped, proven reserves were 1.2 trillion and growing.
Stop listening to the doomers.