Undoubtedly though, you didn't hear about it in the mainstream media... and I'm sure self-absorbed Katie Couric doesn't even know it exists.
You see, 50 years ago on the morning of March 8, 1956, Dr. Marion King Hubbert went from brilliant petroleum geologist for Shell Oil to being dismissed as a radical scientist who had lost his marbles.
His crime?
Telling the truth about oil. In fact, since that day, the oil markets have never been the same.
That's because on that morning, Hubbert gave a talk in San Antonio in which he predicted that US oil production would start to decline by the early 1970s.
To the oilmen who listened to his presentation, this was akin to hearing that the world was flat and the moon was made out of cheese.
But were Shell and the rest of the oil establishment really shocked by Hubbert's prediction?
You have to wonder.
I mean, why did Shell try to put the kibosh on Hubbert's presentation that morning. Did they know something?
Up until minutes before Hubbert began, the top brass at the head office of Shell Oil were on the phone asking him to cancel the talk. But remaining true to his science and his intellect, Hubbert resisted their efforts and spoke.
The Insider
Hubbert's presentation is widely regarded as the beginning of the great debate about the finiteness of the world's oil supply.
Though experts ridiculed Hubbert at the time -- after all, the U.S. was the world's leading oil producer in the 1950s and production was growing steadily -- his prediction was correct and his legacy has inspired generations of geologists and scientists who now see the world itself reaching "Hubbert's Peak."
One of those geologists is Colin Campbell, a leading authority on "peak oil" and energy issues. Hubbert, Campbell explains, "realized that U.S. discovery had peaked in the 1930s, so it was not too difficult to make reasonable estimates of how much was left to find, given the maturity of exploration. Once he recognized that there was a finite total, a little work on the back of an envelope was probably sufficient to sketch a bell-shaped curve peaking when half the total had been produced."
Another geologist following in Hubbert's footsteps is Princeton professor emeritus Kenneth Deffeyes, author of "Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage." Employing variations of Hubbert's methods, Deffeyes recently concluded that the world already passed its peak in December of last year. "I can now refer to the world oil peak in the past tense," he declared. "My career as a prophet is over. I'm now an historian."
Congratulations to Hubbert for reaching his 50-year milestone. His anniversary gift? $60 a barrel oil.
Warm Regards,
Brian Hicks
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