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The peak oil culture wars (3 posts)

  1. truthmod
    Administrator

    http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2008/05/12/peak_oil...

    Sky-high oil prices are not primarily the fault of evil hedge fund speculators, writes Paul Krugman in his Monday New York Times column. If they were, then at some point oil stockpiles would have to rise in order to support prices that are not justified by demand. But that's not happening.

    Partisan conservatives pooh-pooh peak oil (and human-caused climate change) because they think that to concede that these challenges are real and must be confronted is to acknowledge that greed is not always good, and that free market capitalism must be restrained, or at least tinkered with substantially. Peak oil and climate change are fronts in the culture wars, and to some conservatives, watching the price of oil rise as the Arctic ice melts, it might feel like being in Germany at the close of World War II, with the Russians advancing on one front while U.S.-led forces come from the other. The propositions that cheap oil is running out and the world is getting hotter -- as a result of our own activities -- threaten a whole way of life. The very idea that dirty Gaia-worshipping hippies might be right is absolute anathema.

    Krugman column:

    The Oil Nonbubble
    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/opinion/12krugma...

    Posted 16 years ago #
  2. truthmod
    Administrator

    CNN also doing PO:

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/05/13/Oilbrie...

    All of the world's resources are finite so we will run out at some point. The big debate at the moment is about when oil production will peak -- i.e. when half of oil stocks have been used and production begins to slow.

    Texan born geophysicist Dr M. King Hubbert first came up with the peak oil theory -- known as 'Hubbert's peak' -- in the 1950s, arguing that U.S. oil production would peak in the early 1970s. He was right. And since 1981, the world has been using more oil than it has been finding.

    But surely we'll keep on finding oil to replace depleted stocks?

    Well, Brazil and Mexico have found big oil fields in recent years and oil companies are investing heavily in Canadian oil sands in Alberta where it's thought to be plentiful. But like the tar sands of the Orinoco Belt in Venezuela this oil is difficult and expensive to extract, as well as being environmentally controversial.

    Professor Aleklett remains pessimistic about increased rates of discovery in the coming years. "If you look at the discovery trends over the past 40 years, we will find 150 billion barrels in the next 30 years. If you are consuming 30 billion barrels every year means that that stock will last five years," he said.

    Posted 16 years ago #
  3. chrisc
    Member

    The very idea that dirty Gaia-worshipping hippies might be right is absolute anathema.

    Hahaha... perhaps the penny is dropping...

    Posted 16 years ago #

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