Doug wrote: Some day we will run out of oil. But we'll probably choke on the pollution before we burn it all. It seems really bad politics to make arguments from resource scarcity - arguments that have a long history of quickly proving wrong - rather than from the bad social and ecological effects of burning so much oil.
- it is not a question of when we run out of oil, but of when the demand for oil outstrips the capacity to produce it. http://www.oilcrisis.com/magoon/ It is true that resource scarcity has been associated with Malthusianism, however that is no reason ot to at least face the facts about peak oil. The social and ecological effects of burning oil and producing plastics are an intrinsic part of the analysis of people looking at peak oil. You are making a wrong and unfounded assumption that they are not.
Doug wrote: Quite a few of the peak oil types are industry apologists looking for tax breaks and regulatory relief. It's odd to see greens making alliance with them.
- Luckily environmentalists are less concerned about who they appear to be making alliances with than with addressing the issue. The prospect of oil producting peaking only butresses green arguments for alternative social and ecnomic models - it makes sense that greens are studying this issue closely.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/062104_berlin_peak.html