What Happens When the Oil Runs Out?

What happens when the oil runs out? This (perhaps over optimistic)animation takes us on a journey from 1900 to the year 2080 and beyond. It follows the Hubbert Peak theory that suggests that any area in the world - to the planet as a whole - has a rate of petroleum production that follows a bell-shaped curve.

The curve is determined by a combination of discovery rate, production rate and then finally cumulative production. At the beginning when many discoveries are made, infrasturcture is created to encourage more production. Later the production declines because the resource itself is depleted. The Peak theory is named after the geophysicist M King Hubbert who created a method through which the theory could be modelled.

This particular modelling of the theory is by eco animator Anita Sancha. She works primarily on environmental topics such as global warming and the effects that it is having on climate change.  The issue of food (and how we really do have enough, if only we grew and distributed it propely and fairly) is another preoccupation which finds expression in her work.