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Oil drives the global economy. It is a vital
ingredient in everything from transport to
petro-chemicals to agriculture. A handful of
massive corporations and producer countries
control the global oil and gas industry and they
are among the richest and most powerful
interests on the planet. Despite the perilous
dangers of global warming the burning of
fossil fuels continues unabated.
Fossil fools
There’s no fuel like an old fuel. The use of coal, the filthiest petrocarbon, has
grown four-fold in the last century largely due to coal-fired electricity. Oil use has
increased over 160 times and gas by over 240 times in the same period.
Over a barrel
Arab states in the Middle East are still the largest oil producers. These countries pump
nearly 30% of current production. Half the oil left in the ground is in Iraq, Iran, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain. OPEC member nations hold nearly 80% of all proven reserves.
Energy hogs
With just 6% of the world’s population the US and Canada consume nearly 30% of the
world’s energy. The US with just 3% of proven reserves uses a quarter of global oil
production. The biggest consumers are in North America, Western Europe and Japan.
  
Keep on the sunny side
Oil may be number one. But renewable alternatives are on the rise. And 14% of the world’s
energy still comes from biomass – wood, animal dung and crop waste.
• Each day’s sunshine contains more energy than the planet’s 5.9 billion
inhabitants would consume in 27 years.3
• It would take an investment of about $660 million to make solar electricity
competitive, about half of one per cent of the $89 billion spent by oil companies on
exploration and production in 1998 alone.4
Auto erotica
Transport is the fastest-growing area of oil use. The global car fleet now numbers more
than 500 million and that is expected to increase five-fold – to 3 billion vehicles
– by 2020. Vehicle traffic consumes an estimated 60% of global oil production.
• In the US between 1969 and 1995 the number of vehicles increased at six times the rate
of the population while in Western Europe passenger car traffic doubled from 1970 to
1995.7
• Industrial nations have 19% of the world population but use nearly 69% of all energy
that goes to transport. The US use more than a third of the world’s transport
energy.7
• Worldwide the share of carbon dioxide from transport rose from 17% in 1971 to 23% in
1997.
Manfred Gorgus / Still Pictures
Sources:
1 State of the World 1999, Worldwatch Institute
2 BPAmoco Statistical Review of World Energy 1999
3 BP Amoco website: www.bp.com
4 Solar Fact Sheet, Greenpeace International, 1999
5 Worldwatch Institute, 1999
6 BPAmoco Statistical Review of World Energy 2000
7 State of the World 2001, Worldwatch Institute
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