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Page added on October 5, 2015
‘Peak Water’ After ‘Peak Oil’ Fails
Twenty years ago, the volatile Persian Gulf supplied 35 percent of U.S. oil consumption and the left’s so-called experts were screaming that the world had hit the “peak oil” extraction point, after which supply would soon dwindle rapidly.
The left demanded a radical reduction in capitalist economic activity to save what precious energy resources remained to continue to heat humans in winter.
But as Breitbart reported in ‘OPEC Concedes Defeat In Anti-Shale Oil War With U.S.,’ the American shale fracking boom has grown oil production from fracked wells by over 800 percent in just six years.
America now has the world’s largest potential oil reserves, with 900 billion barrels and production life expectancy of hundreds of years.
Rather than admit their “peak oil” theories was incorrect, top leftist writer for the ‘Down With Tyranny’ blog, Gaius Publius, is now demanding we ‘Outlaw Fossil Fuel Production‘ and begin focusing on the ‘Peak Water’ Tipping Point in California‘ as the new end-of-life-as we-know-it crisis.
Publius states that because of climate change, the “earth keeps warming — both in the atmosphere and in the ocean — [and therefore] at some point a full and permanent melt of Arctic and Antarctic ice is inevitable.”
That must come as a shock to scientists at NASA, who recorded Antarctic ice reaching a new record maximum in 2014; as well as the European Space Agency, which found that Arctic ice grew 33 percent in 2013 and another 25 percent in 2014, according to the Express.
Based on Publius’ interesting interpretation of scientific forces that he says will end the polar ice, he hypothesizes that California and the American Southwest have gone beyond a tipping point of “peak water.” Publius admits that some man-made actions can be implemented to mitigate the drought. However, he argues, “we can no longer go back to plentiful fresh water from the Colorado River watershed. That day is gone, and in fact, I suspect most in the region know it, even though it’s not yet reflected in real estate prices.”
The basis for Publius’ end-of-life-as we-know-it prediction for California is a referral to the quote, “For the first time in 120 years, winter average minimum temperature in the Sierra Nevada was above freezing.” But that scary quote is taken out of context from the September 29, 2015 California Department of Water Resources publication, ‘Water Year 2015 Ends as California’s Warmest Ever; Many Hope for Drought-Busting El Niño in 2016.’
Publius conveniently left out the final sentence of the paragraph: “The few winter storms of the past two years were warmer than average and tended to produce rain, not snow.” Furthermore, the DWR states that the average Sierra Nevada temperature was 32.1 degrees, only a tenth of a degree above freezing.
The DWR publication actually warns that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center says there is a 95 percent chance of a strong El Niño during the coming winter, which tends to mean huge rains and snowfall.
24 Comments on "‘Peak Water’ After ‘Peak Oil’ Fails"
Rodster on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 12:18 pm
It’s been said that “water” will be the new oil in the 21st century. You have a Molotov cocktail of climate change and Geoengineering fucking with and destabilizing the weather around the world.
Without water you can’t live past 4 days and can’t grow food. Control the food and you control the people.
GregT on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 1:08 pm
SC apparently has a SURPLUS of water these days. If only they could figure out a way to export it to CA.
A good eCONomist would see a real opportunity here.
shortonoil on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 1:33 pm
“America now has the world’s largest potential oil reserves, with 900 billion barrels and production life expectancy of hundreds of years.”
There are alway those that show up late to the party:
http://peakoil.com/business/the-us-shale-oil-industry-will-simply-vanish
apneaman on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 1:56 pm
BreitBart trying for the old el nino it’s just a one off card again. I tell ya, liberals are unrealistic in their green dreams, but these conservatives have absolutely nothing to offer the modern world except pain. Apes are fucked no matter what, but these cunts are only going to make the suffering all the worse and faster.
Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters: Time Series
https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/time-series
BC on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 2:45 pm
http://www.news.com.au/national/western-australia/miranda-devine-perth-electrical-engineers-discovery-will-change-climate-change-debate/story-fnii5thn-1227555674611
apneaman on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 3:36 pm
Hey BC, let it go.
“When it is completed his work will be published as two scientific papers. Both papers are undergoing peer review.”
Get back to me after it goes through the peer review.
It would be something indeed, since every other extinction period involved massive releases of CO2 from volcanisim – this time it’s different eh? Now we just need to find another electrical engineer, non earth scientist like David Evans with a long history of bullshitting to blame ocean acidification on the sun too and we can all die guilt free.
David Evans (Australian skeptic)
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/David_Evans_(Australian_skeptic)
Who is ‘Rocket Scientist’ David Evans?
“No peer-reviewed articles on climate change
According to his own resume, Evans has not published a single peer-reviewed research paper on the subject of climate change. Evans published only a single paper in 1987 in his career and it is unrelated to climate change.
Evans has published an article for the Alabama-based Ludwig von Mises Instutute, a right-wing free-market think tank.
Evans also published a “background briefing” (pdf) document for the Australian chapter of the Lavoisier Group, a global warming “skeptic” organization with close ties to the mining industry.
“I am not a climate modeler”
From 1999 to 2006 Evans worked for the Australian Greenhouse Office designing a carbon accounting system that is used by the Australian Government to calculate its land-use carbon accounts for the Kyoto Protocol. While Evans says (pdf) that “[he] know[s] a heck of a lot about modeling and computers,” he states clearly that he is “not a climate modeler.”
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/David_Evans_(Australian_skeptic)
Here’s 71 articles exposing David Evans bullshit
http://www.desmogblog.com/search/google/David%20Evans?query=David%20Evans&cx=010071853556961239608%3Apfdia-m7na8&cof=FORID%3A11&sitesearch=
penury on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 3:41 pm
I wonder why anyone wastes time reading this type of garbage. Peak oil is not wrong, maybe early but so what. Peak water or peak drinkable water? I firmly believe that this nation has attained and actually surpassed peak stupidity and the media reflects the hopes and dreams of the hopelessly addicted.
apneaman on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 3:44 pm
pen,I disagree. The stupidity has just begun.
BC on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 4:03 pm
apnea, right, but there is merit in presenting the other side of the debate in the interest of scientific inquiry, encouraging further investigation, and not infrequently buttressing one side or the other.
Again, my position is nuanced in that I do not consider it inconceivable that we experience a period of effects from mid-latitude continential cooling over the next 2-3 Schwab cycles (as in the 1790s-1830s, 1580s-1620, and 1360s-1500s) while remaining in a peak interglacial epoch.
But the implied effects of multi-century and -millennial warming, overshoot, Peak Oil, and resource depletion per capita are already well entrained, and thus intractable, with 7 billion human apes on the planet with no other planets to which to migrate.
BC on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 4:04 pm
Correction: 1360s-1400s.
marmico on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 4:46 pm
Scientific inquiry. ROTFLMFAO. You and rodster should suck the perspiration from the dripping testes of Shedlock and the ovaries of Grandmother Tverberg in the Atlanta suburbs who both know squat let alone how to cultivate a garden. You are a fucking moron.
Do you want to see a google street view of Tverberg the Turd with the minivan in the driveway?
Davy on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 4:50 pm
Mad Marm, you have a garden? That is not a trick question I am just curious. Even if you are not a doomer a nice gardens produces tasty foods.
onlooker on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 4:57 pm
This article is garbage. Yeah torrential rains are just as bad for agriculture as drought. Besides with GW, the glaciers and snow melt in California is decreasing which means less water on a perennial basis. Just another patsie article from the establishment and their cohorts. They really are lacking in any sound rebuttals because they really have none.
Don S on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 7:53 pm
“Publius conveniently left out the final sentence of the paragraph: “The few winter storms of the past two years were warmer than average and tended to produce rain, not snow.””
I just read that article, and the above line was included. Maybe BreitBart conveniently forgot to read the whole thing.
makati1 on Mon, 5th Oct 2015 9:25 pm
The El nino is like a drunk finding a bottle of Chivas under the bed. It temporarily offers a new high but it kills him in the end.
Here in the Ps, it will mean a drought in some places and maybe a foot less rain on the farm. Maybe. It gets about 12 foot per year, on average, so a foot is not very noticeable, except for more sunny days. lol
Newfie on Tue, 6th Oct 2015 2:15 am
“peak oil theories ?” Uh… Peak oil is no more a theory than gravity is a theory.
Joe D. on Tue, 6th Oct 2015 2:38 am
Chriss W. Street, the author of the above article is another republican hack.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/09/breitbart-error-global-warming
BobInget on Tue, 6th Oct 2015 9:37 am
““America now has the world’s largest potential oil reserves, with 900 billion barrels and production life expectancy of hundreds of years.”
Now, if we could only find a way to mine it.
This tactic, linking something true to validate
an entire load of horse shit isn’t new or original
with extremist groups.
Citizens United spawned an entire industry combining semi ligit (tax deductible) charities
with (non tax deductible) so called PAC or political action committees . Just give to charity and secretly those funds are shifted to conservative causes. All legal, so far.
shortonoil on Tue, 6th Oct 2015 9:59 am
When the Spanish arrived in California they called it the Great California Desert. They did for the simple reason that it was a desert, and has been throughout most of recent geological time. To connect that simple fact with Peak Oil displays a definite cognitive disconnect. This writer is definitely not playing with a full deck. It is a classic case of a three neuron brain, and two of them are not firing!
zoidberg on Tue, 6th Oct 2015 1:36 pm
Just admit timing peak oil has escaped all the doomers. Like gold bugs being wrong for years but holding to if I’m right eventually it means I was always right.
That is not right.predicting timing counts too.
That said it does seem to be “soon”. Low prices must eventually lead to lower production. It seems the oil is there but the economy Cant afford the price. Peak by demand not supply.
Not many people thought this way. Peak was usually a geological consideration for many doomers.
Still though a little humility from the peak oil community would go a long way.
GregT on Tue, 6th Oct 2015 3:07 pm
“Just admit timing peak oil has escaped all the doomers.”
Blanket statements and generalizations are almost always incorrect Zoid.
“Not many people thought this way. Peak was usually a geological consideration for many doomers.”
And for many others it was not. No need for a ‘little humility from the Peak Oil community’. Peak conventional oil is in the rear-view mirror, and it was geological in nature.
Unconventional oil production is, for the most part, too expensive for the continuation of BAU and our economies. A little humility is in order from the cornies. Instead of constantly ignoring the reality of the situation, and focusing on timing of an event that really is of little significance.
Dredd on Tue, 6th Oct 2015 3:47 pm
“That must come as a shock to scientists at NASA, who recorded Antarctic ice reaching a new record maximum in 2014; as well as the European Space Agency, which found that Arctic ice grew 33 percent in 2013 and another 25 percent in 2014, according to the Express”
Utter bullshit, a Breitbart trademark.
Arctic sea ice, the ice shelf, is what that article at NASA is about, not the ice sheet.
Big difference.
The difference between an ice sheet and an ice shelf is fifth grade stuff, so this must be a deliberate lie.
Typical.
“The latest findings are consistent with earlier work by researchers at Princeton University in New Jersey, who documented accelerated melting in West Antarctica using GRACE data. That paper, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters in February, estimated that the rate of ice loss across West Antarctica has doubled in the past six years.” (Nature, 2015).
Both Cryosat-2 and GRACE satellites confirm an acceleration of ice sheet loss for both Greenland and Antarctica.
“Measurements from ESA’s CryoSat mission have been used to map the height of the huge ice sheets that blanket Greenland and Antarctica and show how they are changing. New results reveal combined ice volume loss at an unprecedented rate of 500 cubic kilometres a year.
…
The resulting maps reveal that Greenland alone is reducing in volume by about 375 cubic kilometres a year.
…
The researchers say the ice sheets’ annual contribution to sea-level rise has doubled since 2009.
Glaciologist Angelika Humbert, another of the study’s authors, added, “Since 2009, the volume loss in Greenland has increased by a factor of about two and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by a factor of three.””
(Peak Sea Level, quoting ESA)
Dredd on Tue, 6th Oct 2015 3:57 pm
Be careful Breitbard, if you sell your beachfront property by way of misrepresentation (Agnotology: The Surge – 18). Expect a lawsuit.
Sea levels are rising around the globe, except for coastlines of Alaska near Glacier Bay, and other ice shelves:
(New Type of SLC Detection Model – 7).
(Proof of Concept – 4)
(Proof of Concept – 3)
zoidberg on Tue, 6th Oct 2015 4:00 pm
Greg, have it your way. May the future bring you luck and happiness.