Hubbert's Peak not even 'correct'
Sir, Ragnarsdottir and Sverdrup in their article Limits to Growth revisited (Geoscientist 25.9) stated “Hubbert (correctly!) predicted an exhaustion date for the oil and energy resources of the United States as 1970”. In fact the 1970 date refers to US liquid hydrocarbons (not other energy resources such as coal and uranium) and is Hubbert’s (1956) predicted peak production, not exhaustion, date.
Furthermore, and notwithstanding the enormous respect which Hubbert deserves for his body of work, as the figure illustrates, Hubbert’s (1956) prediction of US oil production is far from correct. The “peak resources community” cannot justifiably continue to use Hubbert’s (1956) prediction of future US oil production in support of their views.
Richard Hillis Chief Executive Officer, Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre, Adelaide.