Appears to be a thoughtful and balanced article on the topic.
7 thoughts on “The Straight Dope on Peak Oil”
Alternative energy sources? That’s half the answer (and the easy half). Someone needs to ask Cecil what happens to the global economy (to healthcare, and to information technology) when the cost of plastics goes through the roof.
I don’t know if you’ve read the book Collapse by Jared Diamond, but he talks a great deal about societies in the past that have depleted their resources. It isn’t necessarily the case that some other energy source will come along and allow us to proceed at our current pace. So we could, in fact, be on the edge of the Abyss.
My policy on this is that I am way too good at worrying about things to set myself loose on something that I have zero expertise to analyze, and effectively zero ability to do anything about if it happens.
Much of what I’ve seen and read comes from the big oil companies. And they think we’re just about at the peak, ANWR or no ANWR. This is not another political argument–there is plenty of science to back it up.
I get too depressed when I think about it.
Peak oil is real. Even the Republicans admit it now. But it makes it all the more painful that we’ve got this moronic ex-oil man in the White House because he’s got the least motivation to do anything about it. He’s got motivation to make as much cash as he and his family can before the crash. But you know that if that idiot’s admitting we’re addicted to oil in his SOTU and acting like he’s the first person to think of alternative energy fuels, you know we’re close.
The problem is, we needed huge incentive programs for alternative fuels about twenty years ago to get them online by the time we run out. Starting now is almost too late. We’ve got massive infrastructure to upgrade. Meanwhile, San Francisco is recycling dog crap to power streetlights. Seriously.
I saw a great thing on CSpan a while ago. Congressional hearing on the Chinese Unocal deal. Republicans and Democrats were worried about what these generals and intelligence officers were saying. They were basically viewing the next 50 years as US vs. China for the rest of the world’s oil. Apparently, the Chinese generals accept war with the US as inevitable within that time, according to the CIA guys. There’s not enough for both of us and the Iraq war, Afghanistan, and what will probably turn into wars for Iran and Syria, if not Saudi Arabia is all about beating the Chinese to these resources. I’m sure the anti-Iranian rhetoric we’ve been hearign the last few weeks has as much to do with oil deals they want to make with the Chinese as it does with any supposed “imminent threat” nuclear program.
We don’t care about democracy in Iraq or if they descend into civil war, the oil wells have already been divided up to US oil companies or companies who agree to keep giving us that oil. Our troops are there to protect that. That’s the sad truth.
Wow, didn’t intend to comment that long. Should just hit submit. Got to get a gun to protect my cattle after the panic.
Chicken Litteism at its finest…this will be cast in the dustbin with the Ice Age that was supposed to arrive about 20 years ago.
And I noticed none of you lefties commented on Cecil’s suggestion at the end–time to GO NUCLEAR…all NUKE ALL THE TIME.
There already IS potent alternative energy ready to go…just need to get the enviro-weenies out of the way.
I thought there were a significant fraction of enviro-weenies who are pro-Nuke because though the waste is dangerous, it’s more controllable than the toxic spew from fossil fuels….
Alternative energy sources? That’s half the answer (and the easy half). Someone needs to ask Cecil what happens to the global economy (to healthcare, and to information technology) when the cost of plastics goes through the roof.
I don’t know if you’ve read the book Collapse by Jared Diamond, but he talks a great deal about societies in the past that have depleted their resources. It isn’t necessarily the case that some other energy source will come along and allow us to proceed at our current pace. So we could, in fact, be on the edge of the Abyss.
My policy on this is that I am way too good at worrying about things to set myself loose on something that I have zero expertise to analyze, and effectively zero ability to do anything about if it happens.
Much of what I’ve seen and read comes from the big oil companies. And they think we’re just about at the peak, ANWR or no ANWR. This is not another political argument–there is plenty of science to back it up.
I get too depressed when I think about it.
Peak oil is real. Even the Republicans admit it now. But it makes it all the more painful that we’ve got this moronic ex-oil man in the White House because he’s got the least motivation to do anything about it. He’s got motivation to make as much cash as he and his family can before the crash. But you know that if that idiot’s admitting we’re addicted to oil in his SOTU and acting like he’s the first person to think of alternative energy fuels, you know we’re close.
The problem is, we needed huge incentive programs for alternative fuels about twenty years ago to get them online by the time we run out. Starting now is almost too late. We’ve got massive infrastructure to upgrade. Meanwhile, San Francisco is recycling dog crap to power streetlights. Seriously.
I saw a great thing on CSpan a while ago. Congressional hearing on the Chinese Unocal deal. Republicans and Democrats were worried about what these generals and intelligence officers were saying. They were basically viewing the next 50 years as US vs. China for the rest of the world’s oil. Apparently, the Chinese generals accept war with the US as inevitable within that time, according to the CIA guys. There’s not enough for both of us and the Iraq war, Afghanistan, and what will probably turn into wars for Iran and Syria, if not Saudi Arabia is all about beating the Chinese to these resources. I’m sure the anti-Iranian rhetoric we’ve been hearign the last few weeks has as much to do with oil deals they want to make with the Chinese as it does with any supposed “imminent threat” nuclear program.
We don’t care about democracy in Iraq or if they descend into civil war, the oil wells have already been divided up to US oil companies or companies who agree to keep giving us that oil. Our troops are there to protect that. That’s the sad truth.
Wow, didn’t intend to comment that long. Should just hit submit. Got to get a gun to protect my cattle after the panic.
Chicken Litteism at its finest…this will be cast in the dustbin with the Ice Age that was supposed to arrive about 20 years ago.
And I noticed none of you lefties commented on Cecil’s suggestion at the end–time to GO NUCLEAR…all NUKE ALL THE TIME.
There already IS potent alternative energy ready to go…just need to get the enviro-weenies out of the way.
I thought there were a significant fraction of enviro-weenies who are pro-Nuke because though the waste is dangerous, it’s more controllable than the toxic spew from fossil fuels….