by malcomatic_51 » Sat 27 May 2006, 04:37:26
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ForeignObserver', 'o')n tuesday night. @23.20
This is one of a series of If.. programmes. It will be interesting to see how they portray the issues. It's set in 2016. Matt Simmons is interviewed.
Here's the link
If .. the oil runs out
It's a pity they over-dramatise the issue with talk of the oil "running out". Altough the text clarifies this to the Peak Oil scenario we know, it's the headline that will stick in the mind. People won't listen. The world has "run out of oil" many times, and always more was found because it was there to be found.
You just can't incite a sense of danger in people who have been living cossetted, spoiled lives in a consumer nursery playpen. They live in quiet suburbs, in safe houses, they drive big "safe" cars and they work in nice, bland offices, and most medical conditions can at least be treated. Only cancer is still really scary, and a few more esoteric things like MS. In the view of such people, almost all the traditional hazards of life can be avoided through prudence. Running out of oil? Water off a duck's back.
Most people do not understand energy. They have no technical education at all. How many in the general public have even heard of entropy? Or have any real idea of just how much energy a gallon of gas contains? You could walk for a thousand miles on the calorific content of a gallon of gas. They blithely tip a thousand gallons a year through the tanks of their SUVs. The British alone drive the equivalent distance per year of 5% of a light-year. The Americans must drive a light-year every three years. And these people don't even suspect that this kind of behaviour can cause an energy crisis on a planet of six billion people.....
Please don't insult yeast by even comparing that clever organism to humanity...