After understanding the concept of surplus energy, we will now understand why this ratio has decreased. If you have read my article entitled "Why the Cost of Living Increases" then you will surely understand it. The decline in the energy surplus can be explained by the concept of cherry picking that we previously discussed in the article.
The decreasing energy surplus can be explained by the low-hanging fruit principle in economics. This principle explains that we tend to pick lower-hanging fruits because it is required less effort to reach the fruit.
However, if we keep picking the fruits that are hanging lower, eventually the number of those lower hanging fruits will decrease in quantity, so that we have to exert more energy to pick the fruit that is hanging higher.
At this point, we have drilled oil from a source that is closest to our civilization (we have picked the lower hanging cherries in the tree closest to our house).
Compare between the Drake well in Pennsylvania, United States with a depth of 21 meters with oil reserves with a depth of 5.500 meters in the Gulf of Mexico, which source would require higher costs to obtain the oil?
Based on the concept of cherry garden, Drake's oil well is also known as the lower hanging cherry in the tree that is closest to our house. Meanwhile, the oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico are the higher hanging cherries in the trees further away from our homes.
As time goes by, we would inevitably have to exert a greater amount of energy to pick higher hanging fruits in the trees that further away from our home of civilization.
Could it be possible that we would drill for oil to remote Antarctica in there?
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