Meanings
- uncountableThe belief that the world has reached peak oil.
Peakism has been called a sort of Left Behind for liberals, and apocalyptic sects are known, after all, for proving remarkably resilient.
2015 November 4, Scott McLemee, “Past Its Peak”, in Inside Higher Ed2 more examples
Specifically, peakism is marked by many of the same characteristics of recognized ideologies, including internal coherence, intellectual abstractness, specificity, sophistication, dogmatism, and affective investment.
2015, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture, page 18Peak oil bashing is not entirely the province of the petroleum industry: a very few leftist writers have argued that peakism is a conspiracy covertly organized by the industry itself to talk up prices (and profits) through invoking a false anticipation of scarcity.
2015, Richard Heinberg, Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels
Origin
From peak + -ism, where "peak" refers to peak oil.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
peakism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peakism
“peakism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peakism. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “peakism,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/peakism.
Source: peakism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.