[phaster]

IMHO Peak Oil isn't a taboo topic, its just one that isn't salatious or something the person on the street can relate to.

The biggest problem the human beings have with confronting very complex issues such as "Global Warming" and "Peak Oil" is that its not possible to associate blame to an individual or organization; because if an an individual or organization were the root cause of the problem it would be easier to portray them as pure evil!

Then of course ya have to realize that "Global Warming" and "Peak Oil" are concepts that have long term effects that don't make their "evil" presence know in a way people can relate to. For example gas prices might be going up because we know as peak oil occurs the supply of oil which eventually is refined into gas is going down, BUT to the average person at the pump they focus on the greedy gas station owner for raising prices.

I've been kinda pondering the peak oil topic myself trying to look at it from the perspective of how others view the subject,


http://phaster.com/_peak/pov_peak_oil.html


kinda curious what ya all think

















$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Interfector', 'I')'m just wondering what is the mentality behind it. You could say people don't like to talk of doom and gloom, but it seems like it's more than that. Peak Oil is being lumped in with whacko conspiracy theories, rather than being seen as a scientific fact, which it is, and hence there has been up to now little (or not enough) serious discussion of it, because doing so gets one labelled as a whacko doom monger. How has this situation come about?

[kam3Oen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I') don't discuss P.O. with anybody (except here)...why put myself in harms way? Y2K taught me this lesson well!

[thuja]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lanthanide', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RonMN', 'T')hat all changed back to ridicule & laughter once Y2K ended up to be a non event.

[karras]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ReverseEngineer', 'T')o state what should be obvious, 99% of the population of human beings are INCREDIBLY stupid.

[aldente]

It's rather that Peak Oil awareness is a playground for the rich.
We are dealing with a luxury item here. PO posters are fashion show models "of the other kind", models nevertheless.

[Keith_McClary]

[url=http://www.alternet.org/workplace/100396/_how_positive_thinking_wrecked_the_economy_/]How Positive Thinking Wrecked the Economy

By Barbara Ehrenreich, Barbaraehrenreich.com. Posted September 26, 2008.
[/url]
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')ositive thinking is endemic to American culture -- from weight loss programs to cancer support groups -- and in the last two decades it put down deep roots in the corporate world as well. Everyone knows that you won't get a job paying more than $15 an hour unless you're a "positive person" -- doubt-free, uncritical, and smiling -- and no one becomes a CEO by issuing warnings of possible disaster.

[Gebari]

4 reasons:

1 - Ignorance. Some people have just never heard of peak oil.
2 - Emotions. Some people don't believe in peak oil simply because they don't want to. Often denial and whatever other reasons.
3 - Apathy. Some might just do not care, or may not quite grasp the significance of the situation, or may feel powerless.
4 - Plain old stupiditiy. An uncomfortable truth... the human race is stupid. Some talk of the great achievements of humanity, the radio, landing on the moon, the statue of David. But the fact is only a tiny tiny tiny percentage of humans have ever done anything great. Most people are as dumb as bricks and their lives are barely more functionally advanced than animals, living simple primitive lives, living off basic instincs and emotions than anything higher.

[drgoodword]

I find the greatest roadblock to discussing the potential negative effects of peak oil is the pervasive modern western secular faith in government and science. Whenever I've given my layman's overview of the peak oil problem to family and friends with college degrees, most have understood the idea, but they invariably respond with something along the lines of, "by the time it becomes a real problem, we'll have new sources of energy (or we will have ramped up alternative energy to handily step in and take over for tired and depleted fossil fuel)."

Most people are constitutionally incapable of imagining a world where science and government catastrophically fail.

[jupiters_release]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('drgoodword', '
')Most people are constitutionally incapable of imagining a world where science and government conspire catastrophically against the people.

[raisinbran]

Here's one possible reason:

Because Peak Oil is not really an accurate way to view the world.

When you get to the bottom of it, Peak Oil is nothing more than a prediction based on a overly simplistic view of the world. One in which supply and demand is king.

Since people share different views of the world, people don't really agree with the kind of prediction Peak Oil presents. And when you try to convince people about peak oil, it requires that you "educate" them about U.S. Peak 1970, decline in major oil discoveries, empirical evidence of irreversible decline in other countries, etc. Basically a litany of evidence that creates the framework for a particular worldview, and then a projection of what that worldview holds in the future.

But many people recognize other forces in the world that Peak Oil neglects, like manipulation, deception, a lust for power, etc. Not to mention that there really is NO WAY TO KNOW just how much oil there is in the ground, only what admittedly dubious data the IEA, U.S. Geo Survey, and government reserve reports give us. Back when I would try to convince people about the reality of Peak Oil, I always got the "there's plenty of oil out there" bit which I'm sure most of you have heard and been frustrated by also. But now that I have adopted a totally different worldview that aligns much more closely with events and has been more successful in predicting what was to take place, I can see how people can find it difficult to contemplate peak oil based on their current view of the world.