The cubic mile of oil (CMO) is a unit of energy. It was created by Hew Crane of SRI International to aid in public understanding of global-scale energy consumption and resources.
Significant sources of energy include oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, and biomass (primarily the burning of wood). Other energy sources include geothermal, wind, photovoltaic, and solar thermal. The various energy units commonly used to measure these sources (e.g., joules, BTUs, kilowatt hours, therms) are only somewhat familiar to the general public, and their relationships can be confusing. These common energy units are sized for everyday activities (a joule is the energy required to lift a small apple one metre vertically). For regional, national, and global scales, larger energy units, such as the exajoule, the billion barrels of oil equivalent (BBOE) and the quad are used. Derived by multiplying the small common units by large powers of ten these larger units pose additional conceptual difficulties for many citizens.
Crane intended the cubic mile of oil to provide a visualizable scale for comparing the contributions of these diverse energy components as a percentage of total worldwide, energy use.
The global economy consumes approximately 30 billion barrels of oil (1.26 trillion U.S. gallons or 4.75 trillion ltrs ) each year. Numbers of this magnitude are difficult to conceive by most educated people. The volume occupied by one trillion U.S. gallons is about one cubic mile. Crane felt that a cubic mile would be an easier concept for the general public than a trillion gallons.
Read more about Cubic Mile Of Oil: Definition and Energy Equivalents, Annual Energy Consumption By Source, Global Energy Reserves, Replacement of Oil By Alternative Sources
Famous quotes containing the words cubic, mile and/or oil:
“One of the great natural phenomena is the way in which a tube of toothpaste suddenly empties itself when it hears that you are planning a trip, so that when you come to pack it is just a twisted shell of its former self, with not even a cubic millimeter left to be squeezed out.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)
“We got our new rifled muskets this morning. They are mostly old muskets, many of them used, altered from flint-lock to percussion ... but the power of the gun was fully as great as represented. The ball at one-fourth mile passed through the largest rails; at one-half mile almost the same.... I think it an excellent arm.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Mr. Chadband is a large yellow man, with a fat smile, and a general appearance of having a good deal of train oil in his system.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)