Fossil fuel is a form of ancient sunlight. Formed over millions of years, it is the product of the compression and heating of massive amounts of biomass, creating a highly concentrated form of energy. Tremendous amounts of carbon were removed from the atmosphere and safely sequestered underground, helping to form the atmospheric conditions in which we have evolved and thrived. This natural process was integral in creating the sacred balance of elements in the Earth's biosphere that sustains us all.

Though small amounts of fossil fuels have been used for thousands of years, the real journey to peak oil started with Thomas Newcomen's invention of the steam engine in England around 1710. This is widely acknowledged as the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Modern use of oil came into the picture in the 1800s, simmered a bit and then really took off in the 20 century. Today, we use approximately 21 million barrels of oil per day in the United States alone. Globally, we're burning more than 84 million barrels a day, according to the Energy Information Administration.

I'd like to try to put that into perspective. There are 42 gallons in a barrel. Imagine pouring just 1 gallon of gooey brown oil in a large pan and burning it in your backyard. No one I know would do that on purpose, it would create a lot of black, toxic smoke. Yet we are using over 3.5 billion gallons of the stuff daily. That's more than 40,000 gallons per second.

How can any logical person deny that releasing that much carbon back into our atmosphere would not have a powerful effect on our climate?

We like to burn oil (as gasoline) since we largely ignore the environmental impacts, resulting in energy that is practically free.

Wait a minute. Some say, "Gas costs almost $3 a gallon! That's not cheap." Well, maybe we just don't realize what we are getting for our money.

One barrel of crude oil produces about 5,800,000 Btu of energy. A hard-working human being can produce about 500 watts of energy. Doing the math shows that it would take a person nine days, working hard physical labor for a solid eight hours per day, to equal the energy in just 1 gallon of gasoline. If we fill our car each week with 20 gallons of gas at $2.75 a gallon, then for $55 we are getting the energy equivalent of 26 people working seven full days of hard labor. That works out to about 4 cents an hour, with no overtime. We all have these energy slaves working for us.

With practically free labor in the form of ancient sunlight, it's no wonder we've burned though about half of all the oil in the world in such an incredibly short time. But it's the oil that has been the most accessible and easiest to get to, thus the cheapest, that we've used so far. Now we face the reality of greatly diminishing supplies at exactly the same time that global demand is skyrocketing.

This perfect storm of events means ever decreasing fossil fuel resources and increasing prices. There is no magic bullet that will replace the incredible one-time gift of cheap oil that we have fundamentally taken for granted.

We can all take steps to ease this problem. Responsible citizens are choosing energy-efficient vehicles in growing numbers. Keep in mind that humanity evolved just fine without SUVs. We really don't need them and, in fact, they are doing us all great harm. Let's choose to ignore the marketing hype and think intelligently about what we're really doing to ourselves and our kids. Do we really want to waste the planet, just because we can?

In the 1950s, oil industry geologist M. King Hubbert predicted that U.S. oil production would peak in the early '70s. After years of ridicule, his prediction turned out to be spot on. We're now at that same peak point on a global scale. The climb to the top has been quick and easy. The journey down the other side will be the difficult part as we begin to pay for our gluttony, both at the pump and through the effects of climate change. About 7,350,000 gallons of oil burned while you read this article. Doesn't green living just make sense?

Steve Rypka is a green living consultant and president of GreenDream Enterprises, specializing in renewable energy, green building, alternative transportation and lifestyle choices for both residential and commercial clients. The company is committed to helping people live lighter on the planet. Rypka can be reached via email at steve@greendream.biz. More information relating to this column is posted at www.greendream.biz.