The Peak Oil Debate

Read “Oil Spiel” in the May issue of Outside, now on stands, about “peak oil” activist and author James Howard Kunstler, who thinks America and the rest of the world will soon be running on empty. Kunstler isn’t the only one today who thinks global oil supplies are dwindling. A growing number of analysts today think we’ve reached “peak oil,” meaning that half the earth’s fossil fuel reserves have already been tapped. From here on it, these theorists say, oil supplies will dwindle and gas prices will skyrocket, leading to serious economic turmoil. Could it really spell the end of the world as we know it?