[lbo-talk] End of Suburbia: Peak Oil

[kjkhoo at softhome.net]

At 2:47 pm -0400 26/6/04, Doug Henwood wrote:
>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.

True. But are we to dismiss the recent statement by one of the oil 
majors, in response to talk about diminishing oil supplies, that the 
reserves are good for another 40-50 years?

More importantly, if there's a perception in policy circles that we 
are or have hit peak oil -- although that recent publication from 
Princeton UP seemed credible -- wouldn't this have a major influence 
on policy and action?

It's already had an impact on the Gaia man who's now calling for 
nuclear energy!

kj khoo