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"A Cubic Mile of Oil" - infographics

The Cubic Mile of Oil is a unit of energy, created by Hew Crane to aid in public understanding of global-scale energy consumption and resources. He applies the accessible volumetric unit of “a cubic mile of oil” to all energy sources, eliminating a multitude of units such as tons of coal, gallons of oil, and cubic feet of gas, and obviating the need for mind-numbing multipliers such as billions, trillions, and quadrillions. The energy content of a cubic mile of oil is the thermal energy released during its combustion. The thermal energy content of other fuels can be used to express their amounts in equivalent volumes of oil.

Currently the world consumes approximately one cubic mile of oil each year. In the coming decades the world’s annual energy consumption — from all energy sources — will grow from three cubic miles of oil to between six and nine.

If this increasing demand for energy, startling in its rate of growth, is not met, the world will be unable to adequately combat the scourge of poverty, provide food, clothing, and shelter for its residents, or mitigate future effects of climate change.

The concept of the cubic mile of oil is used to create an awareness of the magnitude of the looming demand for additional energy, so daunting that we need effectively utilize all of our resources to surmount it. Fifty years from now the 1 cubic mile of oil a year we obtain from conventional oil will have to be replaced. H. Crane, E. Kinderman and R. Malhotra discuss about different energy sources as a potential resource and also what we would need to do in order to build sufficient capacity to generate one cubic mile of oil annually from each of the various sources for a period of 50 years.

(All the posters are silkscreen printed in a limited edition. The calendars in a number of 250 are all hand stamped. Five alternative energies, solar, nuclear, hydro, wind and coal are representing infographicaly the period of 50 years/energy in which they need to be developed to produce the equivalent of 1 cubic mile of oil)