ABSTRACT
The attention given to climate change since 2005 is, in reality, a late recognition that the ever expanding global market economy faces a major challenge for which it is ill equipped to respond, the energy-environment conundrum resulting from the excessive global reliance upon fossil fuels. One aspect of this conundrum is the quick exhaustion of global oil reserves- the so-called Hubbert peak. Marion King Hubbert, son of William Bee and Cora Virginia Lee Hubbert, was born in San Saba, Texas, 1903. It is true that Hubbert made important contributions to geophysics, ranging from fundamental scientific research to extensive studies of oil and natural gas reserves in the United States and worldwide. The global market economy is completely dependent upon cheap and efficient energy coming from the burning of oil, gas and coal. Proved oil reserves stand at some 1300 billion barrels, which are quantities of oil that geological information indicates can with reasonable certainty be recovered from known reservoirs.
