by Twilight » Thu 22 Nov 2007, 18:30:30
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Time Magazine', 'A')mong the peakists, war and economic breakdown are favorite themes. They figure that cheap oil is the essential fuel of modern capitalism, which will founder without it. A more hopeful take is that innovation is the essential fuel of modern capitalism and that high oil prices will drive rapid advances in conservation and alternative energy. Either way, the beginning of the end of the oil era may be upon us, well ahead of schedule.
Yes, they definitely read this site.
The article is a good if too brief a summary of the status of the peak oil debate as it is today - and I mean this month, as far as this site goes.
However, the context in which they mention the prognosis for capitalism creates a misleading impression. I doubt peak oilers are any more predisposed towards anti-capitalism than any random crowd. And rather than foundering, we will see it become wilder and less favourable than has been our experience. Whatever people's grumblings, reliable energy supplies, political stability and regulation has harnessed trade and made it benign for many in the West. Soon we will be exposed to the full extent of its ups and downs as so many others are. People don't stock dehydrated food because they hate the market, but because they fear disruption of its hitherto favourable function.