[deconstructionist]

{Title edited by MQ to reflect content}Read this--if for no other reason than to know what Peak Oil's most prolific critic is saying....

NEWSLETTER #70 October 12, 2004
Dave McGowan
Beware the 'Peak Oil' Agenda -- It has become apparent that many people have misinterpreted my 'Peak Oil' rants. I know this because I get e-mail with messages like, "thanks for giving me hope," and "thanks for changing my view of the future." I am sorry to have to report here that the newfound optimism of some of my readers is entirely unwarranted. After reviewing my past writings, I realize that the fault for this misunderstanding lies with me, since I haven't done a very good job of articulating exactly what my position is.

This, my friends, is the harsh reality, so pay very close attention: the fact that 'Peak Oil' is an entirely manufactured construct does not mean that the doomsday scenarios painted by the 'Peak' crowd will therefore not become our new reality. This is not just another scam to further pad the pockets of the oil industry and other financial elites. The stakes are much higher than that. Much higher.

In order to clarify my position on 'Peak Oil,' it would be instructive to briefly review the areas of agreement, and the areas of disagreement, that I have with those who are selling the scam.

The Peakers claim that 'Peak Oil' is the single most important issue that we are facing today. I agree with that assessment (but not because 'Peak Oil' is a valid concept).

The Peakers claim that much of America's military might has been directed in recent years at conquering the key oil and gas producing regions of the world. And that is obviously quite true. Central Asia and Iraq have been seized, Venezuela has suffered through constant meddling by the CIA, the Sudan has been targeted for a future assault, and Saudi Arabia and Iran have been subjected to saber rattling.

But the Peakers also claim that these military ventures have been motivated by America's desire to seize what will soon be the last drops of the world's precious reserves of oil -- and that is entirely untrue.

Read the rest of this here

[mekrob]

That's pretty long (the whole thing). Is it necessary to read it all or is the quote you gave sufficient to understand the 'gravity' of what he is talking about? I mean, come on. I respect JD at least because he admits Peak Oil, but this guy is PO's most prolific critic and he can't even admit to geology and science?

[garyp]

What is it in the water over there that turns out so many conspiracy nuts? Face it, governments are made up of people like you and me (although not him). Incompetent cockup is the order of the day in virtually every instance. They really can't plan that well in reality.

[mekrob]

Ok, this guy has to be the ABSOLUTE biggest conspiracy theorist EVER.

1) This is a ruse by big oil and etc to take our money and all. Well, then why would they give up their share by 'letting' oil peak in the US, huh? Why let Aramco and Russia get the big slice of the pie if Big Oil is trying to take our money?

2) [/quote]But the Peakers also claim that this global "die off" will be a regrettable, but quite natural, and entirely unavoidable, consequence of the world's oil taps running dry. And that is the really big lie. That is the lie that will very soon be used to rationalize the killing off of hundreds of millions, possibly billions, of the world's people. There are, you see, simply too many people in the world who, by merely being alive, are standing in the way of the aspirations of the global elite.[/quote]

WTF? The global elite LOVE the little masses. The little masses are the SOLE reason that the elite are well...elite and wealthy. Without 6 billion people on the Earth, would Gates have 50 billion dollars? Absolutely not. The elite never gained their money and power through actually producing billions of dollars worth of goods, but instead by getting others to work for them to make TONS of goods for the billions on the planet. Reduce the population, reduce the elite's power and wealth.

3) $this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')o, it has become clear that the real goal is to actually cut off most of the world's oil supplies under the ruse that the oil simply no longer exists

[whereagles]

Talk about conspiracy theory... in denial phase he is.

[JoeW]

i read the whole thing trying to figure out what the author's point is... let me save you the time. there is no point. here is the condensed version of this 5000-word diatribe:

'peak oil' is a conspiracy dreamed up by the Elite in the US and allied nations to reduce global population.

the author never explains why these Elite would want to do this, or what they stand to gain in the wake of all this death and destruction.

the guy is a wack-job conspiracy theorist, making a desperate appeal to wack-job conspiracy theorists that currently believe in peak oil...

[keehah]

Not much new here (and it is a 2004 article). Just the same old "oil is running out" straw man troted out of denier's cluster f**k reporting for knocking over:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 't')he Peakers also claim .... what will soon be the last drops of the world's precious reserves of oil

[deconstructionist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', '
')WTF? The global elite LOVE the little masses. The little masses are the SOLE reason that the elite are well...elite and wealthy. Without 6 billion people on the Earth, would Gates have 50 billion dollars? Absolutely not. The elite never gained their money and power through actually producing billions of dollars worth of goods, but instead by getting others to work for them to make TONS of goods for the billions on the planet. Reduce the population, reduce the elite's power and wealth.

[deconstructionist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('garyp', 'W')hat is it in the water over there that turns out so many conspiracy nuts? Face it, governments are made up of people like you and me (although not him). Incompetent cockup is the order of the day in virtually every instance. They really can't plan that well in reality.

[keehah]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he global elite LOVE the little masses.

[gnm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('whereagles', 'T')alk about conspiracy theory... in denial phase he is.

[deconstructionist]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('keehah', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he global elite LOVE the little masses.

[americandream]

I'm not entirely sure this guy is wrong from what I have encountered in here....this site appears to be overrun with free marketeers preaching the virtues of cornucopianism...and then we get fed all this Peak Oil gumf...go figure!

We're supposedly meant to be democratically free....and I have seen some fairly xenophobic characters get away with blue murder in here....but mention the communist word, and U get beaten up and vilified big time....no.....I'm beginnig to wonder just whats afoot in peak oil whistle blowing..seeing as it invariably leads to the dying off of billions of Asian, Middle Eastern and African people all over the third world......the very people perched over much of the world's as yet non transparent oil reserves.

[mekrob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('deconstructionist', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', '
')WTF? The global elite LOVE the little masses. The little masses are the SOLE reason that the elite are well...elite and wealthy. Without 6 billion people on the Earth, would Gates have 50 billion dollars? Absolutely not. The elite never gained their money and power through actually producing billions of dollars worth of goods, but instead by getting others to work for them to make TONS of goods for the billions on the planet. Reduce the population, reduce the elite's power and wealth.

[deconstructionist]

McGowan's main objection to PO is that oil is not a fossil fuel, and that there is a great deal of propeganda that eminates from the oil companies which says it is. i'm not sure if i agree with any of that. even if the russian-ukranian abiotic oil theory is valid--it doesn't mean that we can dredge it up out of the ground fast enough to meet ever increasing demand... nor does it mean that it is created anywhere near as fast as we are using it.

but the point about the value of labor is something that i believe--and i didn't read McGowan say it, either. as you continue to increase the size of the labor pool, the value of that labor goes down, and they simply cannot be paid a living wage. it's supply and demand...

The 'Peak Oil' Put on
[url=http://educate-yourself.org/nwo/nwopopcontrol.shtml]
Population "Control", New World Order Style[/url]

i like to consider information like this with an open mind...

i DO think that there is a conspiracy of global elites running the planet. and i do think that they are controlling the dissemination of information about peak oil. whether it's "real" or not is pretty much irrelevant--it's going to happen, and that makes it real enough for me.

i don't think that big oil got where it was by blundering and stumbling their way along. i think they know exactly what is going on... and their connections to the global banking elites that DO run this world (and if you think they don't, you haven't been paying attention) are undeniable... i don't really know what to believe anymore... other than that some horrible shit is going to go down, probably a few billion people will die, and America will become a police-state within a few years. Who is behind it? those who control the money supply...

[mekrob]

In the event of PO, then yes, governments and big companies will conspire. They'll conspire probably not to directly kill or let people die, but jsut to survive themselves with a reasonably decent economy or some state thereof. But I don't think they will try to make this a police state.

But that doesn't mean that they are making up PO. It is very real and they have probably very little handle on it except for the flow of info, I'll give you that. It is a little hard to swallow accepting these PO 'facts' when they've gone through so many agencies, but it's all we've got.

I'd love for him to answer the question I posed earlier or even you or anyone for that matter. If they are conspiring to keep the population under control (not a horrible thing in reality) because they don't want wages to dip so low that revolts occur, then why the fuck would they stem the flow of oil? Stemming oil will cause economic depression. Thus reducing jobs. Thus reducing wages. Thus inspiring revolution. If they want to make money, how is it in their interest to 'conspire' PO into 'reality' (since it isn't according to this guy) when they just want to make some money? They would make alot more if there were an economic boom due to an oil glut and thus population boom which entails a bigger economic boom (b/c of need for more cars, homes, food, appliances, toys, etc).

And they can easily get their police state simply by staging some more attacks (since they've apparently done that [I'm assuming this guy believes into this. Seems like]) and thus gain support for more surveillance. A police state wouldn't necessarily mean that the economy would stop. Instead, it could be an even BIGGER boom because now we have to turn out tanks and Humvees to fight wars and what not and protect our borders, build walls, build surveillance, etc.

Killing off billions and 'staging' PO does the elite absolutely no good that couldn't otherwise be awarded to them through other means.

Tell him that Exxon doesn't believe in PO. Maybe that will flip his switch since he thinks that oil companies are all liars.

What do you think of this guy? A complete wack-job? Or do you actually give him credit for his theories and what not?

I'm not saying that the elite won't be prepared for PO. They just aren't conspiring to 'induce' it to the level he thinks (maybe a little inducing, ie. Iraq War). Nor do they want a mass die off (unless they completely believe in PO and its ramifications afterwards which would then prove him completely fucking wrong.)

[ironborne]

I agree with whoever is buying. It seems to be a circular argument and if we're not careful we just might debate the definition of "is".

PO seems to be inevitable. Large finds and new technoligies in extracting oil plus conservation will extend the life of our hydrocarbons.

If anyone thinks I am a pitchman they're full of it.

"These are not the droids you're looking for."

[Clyde]

As I understand it, it is proported that the majors, realing from a deluged oil market, cut back on research, exploration, and development in a effort to create a shortage and bring gas up from the $15 dollars or so it was in the 80s.

I am familiar with the charts and stats showing the declining rates of return on exploration and development, to where there are, today, very, very few large finds anymore. How does the claim that they cut back to create a shortage hold up? What is the evidence to this claim?

What is the evidence to date to contradict the claim, made by CERA, among many others, that the diminishing returns are the result of diminished investment to destroy supply?

The peak oil claim, as I've seen it in some places, is that the companies stopped investing because of limited return on that investment (peak oil) coupled with a strategy of gaining greater returns by using other market/stock oriented schemes to generate more profits. What is the evidence to that claim?

What is the proof that the underinvestment was the result of diminishing returns or that it was the result of supply destruction? Charts showing diminishing returns won't do it. How can you prove that diminished investment is the result of diminishing return? Correspondence? Geology?

Has anyone looked at this in any depth?

[MonteQuest]

Clyde, I just merged your post with a spot on topic. Read from the top.

MQ