3 ms·
I came here to say something along these lines. One statistic from that book I’ve always loved is that the Allies burned seven billion barrels of oil during WWI
by nocoiner 4y ago
I came here to say something along these lines. One statistic from that book I’ve always loved is that the Allies burned seven billion barrels of oil during WWII - and six billion of them were pumped from the United States.
- geoduck14 4y agoYup. And a lot of that came from Texas
- nocoiner 4y agoYep, and lots from the Permian Basin in particular, which is of course still an extremely productive field to this day. The resurgence of continental U.S. oil production is a fascinating story and a technological marvel. There are upsides and downsides to fossil fuel extraction at that scale, but like the original posted noted, the transformational impact cannot be understated.
- dredmorbius 4y agoThe transformational force of oil, and the quantities involved, were indeed staggering. I'd like to add: I don't share Yergin's sympathies and enthusiasm for the oil industry or petroleum itself. Despite that, his book really is a treasure, and is among the better histories of energy out there. I'd include the more broadly-scoped works by Vaclav Smil (Energy and Civilization <https://www.worldcat.org/title/959698256 https://www.worldcat.org/title/959698256> and Energy in World History <https://www.worldcat.org/title/30398523 https://www.worldcat.org/title/30398523>) and Manfred Weissenbacher (Sources of Power <https://www.worldcat.org/title/416715097 https://www.worldcat.org/title/416715097>). Wiessenbacher in particular emphasizes the political and military implications of energy regimes.
- audiometry 4y agoHeh, the modern world would eat that much in about two months. 4? years compressed to 0.25 of a year? (basis ~90mn/day)