Oil debate’s crude for thought

…A world expert on peak oil, Dr Roger Bezdek, said Australia faces a bleak future if we don’t start planning for peak oil now.

For a start he said inaction over peak oil would bring Australia liquid fuel shortages, massive unemployment, high interest rates and a severe recession.

“The problem of the peaking of world conventional oil production is unlike any faced by modern industrial society,” said Dr Bezdek, who has written two reports for the US Department of Energy on the economic impacts and risk management of declining oil supplies.

“Previous energy transitions, from wood to coal and from coal to oil, were gradual and evolutionary.

“The world is facing an imminent energy discontinuity that will be abrupt and painful,” said Dr Bezdek.

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