Fossil fuels are a huge part of today’s society with a “81.2% oil usage worldwide”, powering factories, cars and even households (Worldbank). However, as more and more fuel is needed to power all of our machines, we have to recognize the fact that these fossil fuels will run out one day. If we do not act now then we may have depleted all of our fossil fuels, oil and coal included, and thus being forced to find an alternate source of energy. This may lead to the demise of machines and the infrastructures supported by them. Factories, buildings, and power plants may crash, creating a huge economic and political crisis. It is the harsh reality that we might be facing in the next 30 years, directly affecting us, the population of the world, who are reliant on such resources. This problem of the depletion of fossil fuels, as a whole, is not addressed enough in the modern day, despite the grand scale of its effects on our society.

In the recent years, our governments have been investing into extracting more fossil fuels producing, “96.3m b/d of oil, of which it {the world} consumed only 94.5m b/d” (The Economist). This has created problems because as each country requires an expanding possession of fuel, the countries who mine to provide such fuels must dig up land to deplete more and more reserves of underground fuels. This creates not just environmental problems but economic problems too; the prices of fuels are dropping as the amount produced continues to rise at a constant rate. This is all happening as we start to reach something called peak oil. This term represents “the point in time” at which the production of fossil fuels will begin to decrease therefore crashing markets and stressing the creation of an alternate source of energy that is renewable and sustainable in daily usage (Cornell University).

At the rate of fuel consumption, we will reach peak oil, thus making it inevitable that fossil fuels will deplete by a certain date. Cornell University states that, “The bottom line is that conventional oil and natural gas will probably peak sometime between 2020 and 2040.” This statistic demonstrates that at any time in these upcoming years we could experience a huge crash of governments and economies around the world due to their dependence on these resources that may deplete “between 2020 and 2040”. An issue this severe, can cause many further problems for those who must develop the solution for an alternate energy source with a long sustainability . Economies and governments will crash therefore descending into anarchy, if we do not take action now.

The United States and Russia are said to have supplies to sustain the world with fossil fuels for a maximum of 40 years due to them having the largest reserves of oil in the world and billions of dollars worth of oil barrels (Wikipedia). ‘A maximum of 40 years’ because our constant need for resources and their common usage will increase, creating a more plausible possibility for a depletion in fossil fuels. A post by Hydrocarbons-Technology states that, “The United States is the world’s biggest oil consumer with over 18.5 million barrels per day’. This amount is almost twice as much as the world’s second most oil consumer which is China. In a time span of 365 days, the US alone would use 6,752,500,000 barrels of oil and even more when you combine the yearly usage of the other 196 countries that use oil and natural gas on a daily basis. This debunks the fact that we have enough oil and natural gas reserves to produce as much as we use; however, the fact is that these resources will not last many years more because they are not renewable. If we do not create an opportunity for other sources of energy to be introduced into the modern world then we as a population will suffer consequently. We should not be deceived by the fact that our oil can sustain us for some decades but once the time comes and the ground is dry of fossil fuels, I ask you this, where will our governments and economies stand without their ‘plentiful’ oil?

The world is digging itself its own grave as we reach peak oil and therefore the end of our fossil fuel production. The effects will not only crash our government and economies but will cause chaos as we cannot produce enough fuel to power common household needs such as lights or heating. If we do not take these problems as an immediate threat to our society’s welfare, we will pay the price once the day is upon us. If we would address this issue more in our society, the leaders of today and those of tomorrow will have to find a solution, whether it's a sustainable source for resources or a renewable energy source. This would help governments and economies grow and develop as they once did, before any crisis.