by AgentR » Sun 15 Oct 2006, 20:22:04
There's really two pieces though, so debunking can be attempted in multiple ways.
1)production..
Show that world oil production has not peaked.
2)economic effect of the peak
assert that a reduction of available, affordable liquid energy will cause only smooth adaptation, and not crash.
Argument 1, I don't pay any attention to at all, since its a finite quantity being extracted at a certain positive rate, therefore there exists a maximal rate at some point in time. So if its not in 2006, it might be in 2060; don't know, don't care. At some point, oil production peaks, and that objection is moot.
Argument 2, is much more interesting. Lots of different ways things can happen, are we already at the beginning of an engineered decline of the American Standard of Living, are we already 30 years into it, with the results being forstalled by double-income middle class families? Do the governments work to inflate the price of oil artificially so as to apply artificial adaptation pressure? Or will we suppress the price and run till we look down and notice that we've already driven off the cliff?
I know I can construct a way down that doesn't go splat. I'm sure it'd get me impeached, but thats a different story. Are the powers attempting just such a thing, but doing it only as fast as they can get away with? Are they crazy, or do they know something about Florida that we don't know?
Yes, we are. As we are.
And so shall we remain; Until the end.