Posted on 08/24/2005 6:06:17 AM PDT by minerboy
hink high gas prices are bad?
Get a load of what ex-oilman and ex-Princeton professor Kenneth Deffeyes believes are following closely behind:
"War, famine, pestilence and death," he said. "We've got to get the warning out."
The threat? Peak oil.
The term refers to the time when the worldwide production of oil peaks and begins a rapid decline. From then on, this incredibly efficient fuel source, which still costs less than most bottled water, will be ever more scarce and ever more costly.
Highly respected sources, including the U.S. government, think that day is distant, and most mainstream economists think it won't cause much of a ruckus.
But Deffeyes thinks peak oil is coming in November, and could bring humankind to the brink.
"It's been like pulling teeth to get public awareness," he said.
So who is this well-credentialed Chicken Little?
Deffeyes grew up next to gushing oil wells. He is a former petroleum geologist himself, having worked for Shell Oil for six years after earning a doctorate from Princeton.
He is a devotee of former Shell geologist M. King Hubbert, who correctly predicted U.S. oil production would peak in the early 1970s. Deffeyes is also the author of "Hubbert's Peak" and "Beyond Oil: The View From Hubbert's Peak," which was published last spring.
He is among a cadre of peak-oil proponents who sketch out a frightening near-term future in which the American way of life is upended as the United States, China and great nations scramble after oil fields like desperate players in a game of musical chairs.
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
Well, heck, that means the whole global warming thing is moot, right?
that's looking at the bright side! good for you
Good thing I still have all my Y2K supplies!
So we won't need to drill off California after all, right? I bet the view from the 405 will be better with no cars.
I saw this doomsday hysteria on the front page of one of those ridiculous 'rags' at the supermarket.
I think it was the same paper that showed a picture a few months ago of cats living on Venus. LoL
Right now, there is a global boom in drilling rig manufacturing and oil companies ready to lease them as they are added to the global fleet.
The more wells drilled, the more production. Until we reach the top of the bell curve, then new drilling declines as commodity prices fall and drilling rigs get stacked.
He is way to early in predicting the peak..but it is closer than those who think it's 40 or 50 yrs away.
We have time to build nuke power plants and switch to electric/hybrids..
The world will not go into madness over oil.
PEAK OIL is a MYTH!
http://www.the7thfire.com/Politics%20and%20History/peak_oil/peak_oil_is_a_known_fraud.htm
Oil does not come from dead dinosaurs - but it is being made all the time 100's of miles below the surface.
Its illegal to yell fire in a theater. I don't see much difference here with the doomsayers
Is this before or after we run out of coal. Oh, I forgot that's an old prediction everyone was convinced was accurate about 60 years ago.
Almost ironic isn't it? Bin Ladin starts this whole thing thinking he'll rule the world, and what he will turn out to be is the man who forced the western world to finally fund the search for alternative energy.
SA will be sitting on a pool of worthless sticky black stuff, same with Iran, Venezuela and a lot of other third world countries.
One of the reasons AE has not been pursued is that oil was so darned cheap it wasn't worth pursuing. At $4.00 to $5.00 a gallon, it'll be well worthwhile to spend the money to find another source.
Putin is UP to something, he has traveled the globe making nice nice with the oil merchants, and is to host the next G-8 Summit and he said it would be about energy.
Pulling old Saddam's tail feathers did not sit well with Putin.
He'd be more convincing if he didn't start trying to predict the world's reaction.
So let me understand--are you saying that they don't have cats on Venus? If so, then my dog and I don't want to go.
I think "peak oil" is kind of a slogan that maybe fine tunes the argument too much.
It can really be summed up this way: The world's population and economy are growing at a breakneck pace, and so is it's thirst for oil, but oil is an exhaustible commodity, and the low cost reserves have pretty much been exhausted.
It's simple supply and demand. Obviously, there will be a crunch.
There's only about 1.2 trillion barrels of shale oil in the American west (Wyoming, Utah, Colorado) As long as oil stays above $50/barrel, from what I understand, it is economically viable to extract and bring to market.
No worries.
At least we won't have to see such an eyesore like an oil rig 500 miles off our coastlines, or wind farms, or nuclear plants. Also, think of all the animal species that will survive. This is the ultimate goal of the hate America lefties.
The end is coming, the end is coming. - That's what he's screaming. Ok, back away from the hysterics for a moment.
Just what exactly am I supposed to do about this?
I always wonder why nobody points out that U.S. oil production slumped after the Democrat controlled Senate and Congress voted out the old Oil Depletion Allowance.
The most cogent comment in the whole article. Energy (oil) became more expensive in the 70's. We adjusted. Energy is (obviously) becoming more expensive now. We'll adjust. Thermal depolymerization, tar sands, improved drilling and extraction, etc. all await. To say nothing of the simple fact that as the price per barrel makes more "estimated" reserves "proven" reserves.
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