Peak Oil: Ignoring Evidence

An observation worth noting … and pondering, from Al Gore:

Have we gone completely nuts?
We haven’t gone nuts — but the ‘conversation of democracy’ has become so deeply dysfunctional that our ability to make intelligent collective decisions has been seriously impaired. Throughout American history, we relied on the vibrancy of our public square — and the quality of our democratic discourse — to make better decisions than most nations in the history of the world. But we are now routinely making really bad decisions that completely ignore the best available evidence of what is true and what is false. When the distinction between truth and falsehood is systematically attacked without shame or consequence — when a great nation makes crucially important decisions on the basis of completely false information that is no longer adequately filtered through the fact-checking function of a healthy and honest public discussion — the public interest is severely damaged.

The former Vice President was speaking of climate change when he wrote those words, but the observation is surely applicable to the state of our national (and state) political “conversations,”, and they are every bit as relevant in the discussions about the future of our energy supplies.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sparked a bit of controversy in her farewell to the State Department several months back when she offered comments on the Senate hearings at which she  had testified by observing that her critics “[J]ust will not live in an evidence-based world.”

The rampant nonsense we’re all subjected to serves an interest; it’s just not a particularly honorable, decent, or even remotely ethical one. This is a good thing? Citizens are now routinely subjected to a tedious spate of half-truths, context-free “facts,” smooth assurances, and arguments straight from carefully-crafted playbooks which further the interests of a very small group—and only those groups. Why?

Shale oil/gas production is not nearly the panacea industry shills are making them out to be. Increases in U.S. production are wonderful advances, but without the necessary context which informs us that conventional supplies continue their inexorable depletion and decline; that shale wells decline at even faster rates (to say nothing of their assorted other concerns, as I explain in a series which began here); that what is now being produced is of a lesser “quality,” and that exporting nations are keeping more of their own supplies, exporting smaller amounts. Most citizens don’t have the familiarity or expertise to think about such things, but those less-than-pleasant truths matter … a lot!

Why can’t industry officials and their media outlets share all the facts about fossil fuel production and supply issues so that the public has not only a greater understanding about the challenges we face, but can also begin to act now to address the problems intelligently by working with the officials and organizations and industries whose assistance will be critically important in helping us all to adapt?

That statement is no doubt viewed by many as both naive and idealistic, but why should telling the truth and respecting those who depend on others for information and guidance be anything other than simply the right thing to do?

peak oil matters