ABSTRACT
Two of the greatest challenges to our collective future are the negative impacts of resource depletion and the uncertainties of climate change. Each of these threats is addressed in the following selection by Newman, Beatley and Boyer. The Hubbert Peak (Oil) Theory hypothesizes that global petroleum extraction will peak and begin a period of decline, causing major negative economic, social, and transportation shocks that will stress global relations and force societies to change their way of life. The model was first created by M. King Hubbert in 1956 to predict US oil production declines beginning in the late-1960s. On the world stage, many Peak Oil adherents suggest this production decline will begin sometime after 2020 (this estimate having been adjusted many times previously). Though continuing price shocks, scientific research, and production crises provide evidence for Peak Oil proponents, new fossil fuel discoveries, innovative extraction technologies, and alternative energy possibilities diminish these concerns for Peak Oil opponents. On whichever side of the debate one falls, oil price instability is already awakening some cities to the need for urban form, development, and infrastructure evolution; with the smarter places already beginning to make fundamental changes (many of these places are in Europe, Latin America, the Gulf States, and Asia).
