Editing 2000s (section)

=== Energy crisis ===
{{Main|2000s energy crisis}}
[[File:US oil price in dollars from 1999 to 2008-10-17.svg|thumb|[[World oil market chronology from 2003|Increase in oil prices]]]]
[[File:May2008gasolineCA.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Gasoline and diesel usage and pricing|Gas prices]] in late May 2008]]

From the mid-1980s to September 2003, the inflation-adjusted price of a barrel of crude oil on NYMEX was generally under $25/barrel. During 2003, the price rose above $30, reached $60 by August 11, 2005, and peaked at $147.30 in July 2008.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://tfc-charts.com/chart/QM/W |title=Weekly Commodity Futures Price Chart: Crude Oil EmiNY |publisher=TFC-charts.com |access-date=February 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502013508/http://tfc-charts.com/chart/QM/W |archive-date=May 2, 2014}}</ref> Commentators attributed these price increases to many factors, including reports from the United States Department of Energy and others showing a decline in petroleum reserves, worries over [[peak oil]], Middle East tension, and oil price speculation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,556519,00.html |first=Moira |last=Herbst |title=Speculation – But Not Manipulation |work=Der Spiegel |date=May 30, 2008 |access-date=February 14, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120518065027/http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0%2C1518%2C556519%2C00.html |archive-date=May 18, 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

For a time, geopolitical events and natural disasters indirectly related to the global oil market had strong short-term effects on oil prices. These events and disasters included [[North Korea]]n missile tests, the 2006 conflict between Israel and Lebanon, worries over [[Iran]]ian nuclear plants in 2006 and [[Hurricane Katrina]]. By 2008, such pressures appeared to have an insignificant impact on oil prices given the onset of the global recession. The recession caused demand for energy to shrink in late 2008 and early 2009 and the price plunged as well. However, it surged back in May 2009, bringing it back to November 2008 levels.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/Oil-prices-jump-to-new-high-apf-15149868.html?.v=10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090509193321/http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Oil-prices-jump-to-new-high-apf-15149868.html?.v=10 |url-status=dead |title=Yahoo Finance |archive-date=May 9, 2009}}</ref>

Many fast-growing economies throughout the world, especially in Asia, also were a major factor in the rapidly increasing demand for [[fossil fuel]]s, which—along with fewer new petroleum finds, greater extraction costs, and political turmoil—forced two other trends: a soar in the [[Price of oil|price of petroleum]] products and a push by governments and businesses to promote the development of [[Environmental technology|environmentally friendly technology]] (known informally as "green" technology). However, a side-effect of the push by some industrial nations to "go green" and utilize [[biofuel]]s was a decrease in the supply of food and a subsequent increase in the price of the same. It partially caused the [[2007–2008 world food price crisis|2007 food price crisis]], which seriously affected the world's poorer nations with an even more severe shortage of food.<ref>Global Policy [http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/hunger/general/2008/0303foodcrisis.htm Global Policy Forum, Are We Approaching a Global Food Crisis?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090422035616/http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/hunger/general/2008/0303foodcrisis.htm|date=April 22, 2009 }}</ref>