[Socratic]

I also remember during the "Energy Crisis" the many reputable scientists who said that all the world's oil resources would be used up by 2012.

[Fledermaus]

Ted Danson told us on TV in 1985 that we had only 10 more years before the oceans would dry up.

His hair fell out faster.

Have you read the papers that theorize oil isn't a "fossil" fuel at all in that sense and that it's manufactured by the planet itself through many means? They've found funky leaks in the deep Gulf of Mexico with oil pumping out of fissures.

[TigersEye]

I also remember during the "Energy Crisis" the many reputable scientists who said that all the world's oil resources would be used up by 2012.

I remember that too and I also remember reading since then that world oil consumption has risen well above the projections used for that prediction. Seems there's more oil than we've been told.

[BagCamAddict]

I also remember during the "Energy Crisis" the many reputable scientists who said that all the world's oil resources would be used up by 2012.

Wellllll..... in defense of scientists everywhere...

Any conclusion is based on specific assumptions, which are always stated in the results/conclusions of the report. There can be no doubt that the true statement was more like this:

AT THE CURRENT RATE OF CONSUMPTION, AND AT THE CURRENT RATE OF POPULATION GROWTH.... all the world's oil resources will be used up by 2012.

But that's a boring sound bite for the media, so they report only the alarmist conclusion, not the data on which the conclusion was drawn.

And it is precisely BECAUSE of statements/estimates/findings like this which led to the development of alternative energy technologies. Thus, these very statements, which may be ACCURATE at the time, are later referenced as WRONG because someone took them seriously and changed the CURRENT RATE OF CONSUMPTION by developing more fuel efficient autos, heating/cooling systems, electricity production, etc.

So the scientists who made those statements can't win.