(Untitled)

[misterbenno]

Last night I saw A Crude Awakening; a documentary about Peak Oil. It's all pretty depressing really. I think what's probably as important as the peak of production is how well production meets the rising demand, and when I tried to find some statistics on production, I found

Comments

[monotonehell]

Didn't OPEC agree to increase production in order to bring prices down awhile ago? I think I've mentioned this to you before, back in 2004 I hosted the AGM and conference for Sustainable Population Australia. One of the speakers spoke to peak oil and peak natural gas years before the media picked up on the subject. 'Twas interesting.

[misterbenno]

I still don't think the media have picked up the subject.

I know plenty of people who don't know what Peak Oil is or why it's significant.

[thebanjoranger]

This is a really hard issue. I remember being freaked out by peak oil about three years ago, and reading articles in the newspaper that petrol would hit $3 per litre by September this year. Well, it hasn't happened and I think I've learnt to be a bit more sober in my judgements. In fact, the cost of oil is largely pushed by oil futures, not by the oil companies themselves!

The key factor that peak oil arguments exclude is the cost of production. Oil companies won't drill for oil if it costs more than 60c to produce a barrel. But there's plenty of oil around in the 60c-$1.20 per barrel range that hasn't been tapped.

I'm not saying it's a limitless supply, or that we don't have to change, I just don't believe it's quite as bleak as peak oilers would have us believe.

This is both @ Benno and Jon..o

[monotonehell]

The thing with the more expensive oil is not only is it harder to get but it also is of a lesser grade. The further past peak oil we get (we're already past it in most wells) the more the cost of production and refinement goes up. I wish more people could have come to the seminar I mentioned above but it was a in house thing mostly, the speakers were all non-hippy types and quite rational in their science. Tim Flannery was one, I forget the others. The reason I wish more people could have come was that they outlined things in depth (if that's not an oxymoron) more so than the media would anyway.

Having an issue in the media is one thing, wincing at the media's ability to totally screw with the message is another.

A thought struck me last week, when did "we're polluting the planet" become "we're producing too much CO2"?

It seems the TOTAL focus is on CO2 these days, who cares if we're throwing other pollutants into the environment... so now we're all into carbon trading and everything will be cool...... we're doomed lol

Re: This is both @ Benno and Jon..o

[misterbenno]

we're far from doomed -- nuclear will save us all :P

Re: This is both @ Benno and Jon..o

[monotonehell]

Oh dear, in that case we're dooooomed for sure! lol