[lbo-talk] Peak Oil or Oil Bubble?

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Thu Apr 14 09:50:47 PDT 2005


Joseph Wanzala wrote:


>Precisely, which is why I am perplexed that Doug would say on KPFA
>Radio this morning that 'peak oil is the wrong thing to worry about,
>rather we should be worry about pollution', or words to that effect
>- seems like a false dichotomy.

It's not going to work that way. Talking about peak oil will probably encourage more reckless drilling and an ugly dog-eat-dog Malthusian competition. And it may well be wrong. Besides, 40 years of reserves is a lot. If a possible climate catstrophe inside a decade doesn't inspire action, an even less possible exhaustion of oil in four isn't going to. The rhetorical emphasis is wrong, since there's more danger in burning what we have than there is in worrying about what we might not have.

Doug



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