[lbo-talk] End of Suburbia: Peak Oil

[John Thornton]

Isn't the problem more than when we reach the peak output will begin to 
fall and drive the price up rather quickly more than we are about to run 
out of oil? Less scarcity than a perception of such. That is my 
understanding but it isn't something I've devoted a lot of time to 
researching. I've read one book by Kenneth Deffeyes that didn't seem like 
the work of either an industry apologist or a apocalyptic visionary. I also 
remember a longish piece in Scientific American a few years back that was 
of a similar tone. I didn't think the Scientific American was much given to 
apocalyptic visions either but I read it so seldom I wouldn't know for 
certain. From the tone of your e-mail I assume that you are not a believer 
in a coming oil production peak and accompanying price spike? I thought 
Huberts prediction of North American oil production reaching a peak in the 
early '70's was shown to be correct too.

John Thornton


>Curtiss Leung wrote:
>
>>Too bad.  The peak oil hypothesis seems credible, and some
>>commentary on what it would mean for social life would be
>>good.
>
>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.
>
>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.
>
>Doug