[yesplease]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FreakOil', 'M')ore than 80% of freight in China is transported by truck. Imagine trying to haul all those DVD players and whatnot to the nearest port on bicycles.

Here's a heart-stopping video clip for beer lovers: Careful, buddy

[drgoodword]

Yesterday CNN.com published a "briefing" on oil which struck me as being unusually peak oil aware, especially for a non-opinion piece.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Will we ever run out of oil?

All of the world's resources are finite so we will run out at some point. The big debate at the moment is about when oil production will peak -- i.e. when half of oil stocks have been used and production begins to slow.

Texan born geophysicist Dr M. King Hubbert first came up with the peak oil theory -- known as 'Hubbert's peak' -- in the 1950s, arguing that U.S. oil production would peak in the early 1970s. He was right. And since 1981, the world has been using more oil than it has been finding.

[idiom]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jack', 'H')as it hit mainstream yet? Barely.

Click this first

Now click this

[mos6507]

Wow. New Zealand is the most peak-oil aware according to those charts. Wonder what will become of that? That and portland oregon.

[Jack]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'W')ow. New Zealand is the most peak-oil aware according to those charts. Wonder what will become of that? That and portland oregon.

[DefiledEngine]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')There will be overload freighters moving from Indonesia to New Zealand; refugees on foot (or in cars traveling on fumes) will go to Portland. It will not end well.

[phaeryen]

Yesterday it really did hit the mainstream here. Peak oil doomerism was #1 news story on the economy section of the #1 daily newspaper that has nationwide circulation. I was quite shocked. They even mentioned matthew simmons by name! It was topped off with a very bleak photograph of can't remember what exactly. But in the end, after presenting the very rudimentary arguments composing the idea of peak oil being a problem, they did themselves in by letting a fifth of the article completely trash the general tone of their own article. A quote from some bigass economist that downplayed it all as some conspiracy theory, and just a baseless, general argument of "most oil experts, however, dismiss these prophets of impending apocalypse."

Still, 4/5ths of the thing was presenting some of the easier to understand points about peak oil in a very concerned way. Doing themselves in at the end of the article I just couldnt understand - my impression was of an introduction of ideas to a general populace so that later on, the whole brunt of it might become a little more bearable.

Peak Oil wasn't mentioned directly. But they outlined the general trend of supply plateau and beginnings of supply decline, and a demand that just keeps growing. Producing countries diminishing oil exports because of growth of internal demand. 120$ oil, and a future outlook of where price still continues to rise rapidly. No big oilfield discoveries for so and so long, etc.

[drgoodword]

Earlier this week, the leader of Canada's Liberal Party, Stephane Dion, mentioned Peak Oil:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')The peak oil era is happening and we need to prepare our country to win in this economy," he said to supporters, who paid $500 a plate to hear Dion speak.

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('phaeryen', '
')Still, 4/5ths of the thing was presenting some of the easier to understand points about peak oil in a very concerned way. Doing themselves in at the end of the article I just couldnt understand - my impression was of an introduction of ideas to a general populace so that later on, the whole brunt of it might become a little more bearable.

[Ferretlover]

USAToday website: Type in Peak Oil-you get news, ads, and:
Peak oil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia May 17, 2008
Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum ... predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970. ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil
Peak Oil News and Message Boards May 15, 2008
Community and collaboration portal working to educate and promote awareness of global hydrocarbon depletion.
http://www.peakoil.com/
Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO) May 19, 2008
Network of concerned European scientists working to evaluate the world's endowment and definition of oil and gas; study its depletion; and raise awareness of the ...
http://www.peakoil.net/
Peak Oil: Life After the Oil Crash May 16, 2008
Information on the geological, economical, political, and social aspects of the peak oil phenomenon.
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
PeakOil.org April 18, 2008
Looks at the potential for the peak in world oil production to radically change civilization.
http://www.peakoil.org/

[Pops]

Looks pretty mainstream on Google.

[Zardoz]

National Geographic has joined the Peak Oil camp:

Tapped Out

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n 2000 a Saudi oil geologist named Sadad I. Al Husseini made a startling discovery. Husseini, then head of exploration and production for the state-owned oil company, Saudi Aramco, had long been skeptical of the oil industry's upbeat forecasts for future production. Since the mid-1990s he had been studying data from the 250 or so major oil fields that produce most of the world's oil. He looked at how much crude remained in each one and how rapidly it was being depleted, then added all the new fields that oil companies hoped to bring on line in coming decades. When he tallied the numbers, Husseini says he realized that many oil experts "were either misreading the global reserves and oil-production data or obfuscating it."

Where mainstream forecasts showed output rising steadily each year in a great upward curve that kept up with global demand, Husseini's calculations showed output leveling off, starting as early as 2004. Just as alarming, this production plateau would last 15 years at best, after which the output of conventional oil would begin "a gradual but irreversible decline."

That is hardly the kind of scenario we've come to expect from Saudi Aramco, which sits atop the world's largest proven oil reserves—some 260 billion barrels, or roughly a fifth of the world's known crude—and routinely claims that oil will remain plentiful for many more decades. Indeed, according to an industry source, Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi took a dim view of Husseini's report, and in 2004 Husseini retired from Aramco to become an industry consultant. But if he is right, a dramatic shift lies just ahead for a world whose critical systems, from defense to transportation to food production, all run on cheap, abundant oil.

[drgoodword]

Another MSM article (The Independent) which speaks of the growing change in expert opinion from optimism to pessimism:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]Peak oil
After 150 years of growth, the oil age is beginning to come to an end. "Peak oil" is the common term for when production stops increasing and starts to decline. At that point what have been ever-expanding and cheap supplies of the resource on which all modern economies depend become scarcer and more expensive, with potentially devastating consequences.
Pessimists believe that production has passed its peak. Optimists say it may be 20 years or so away – which would give us some time to prepare – but are now muted. Last week the hitherto optimistic International Energy Agency admitted that it may have overestimated future capacity. Chris Skrebowski, editor of 'Petroleum Review' and once an optimist himself, believes that the world is now in "the foothills of peak oil". Prices may ease a bit over the next few years, but then the real crunch will come. The price then? "Pick a number!"

[katkinkate]

The term 'peak oil' may be bandied about more often, but people still don't get it. They had peak oil as the topic on Australia Talks today (a talk-back radio program on Radio Australia) and I heard most of the usual denialist stuff on why peak oil is a scam, conspiracy theory, plot by big oil co.s, scare-mongering for the gullible ... whatever. I think it will take a while before there is general acknowledgement, but probably years before the denialists give up.

[topcat]

Pretty good article yesterday (Sunday) in a north Ohio paper, written by the AP. By calling the article 'good', it talked about the back-to-the-landers, and also 'the gun' folks.

It even mentioned PO and PO.com! Saved article for wife and kids to read.

[IndigoMoon]

I did a simple search for peak oil on Google News this morning. This was the top story.

[btu2012]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'S')o get ready for a decade of an "Is it a problem?" meme in these news articles while the world crashes and burns around us rather than "It IS a problem, so what do we do about it?".