[vampyregirl]

Myth: Oil prices are artificial.
Fact: Oil trades on a global market. Price is affected by supply and demand as well as fear and speculation like any other trading market.

Myth: We are running out of oil.
Fact: Oil resources are out there, should we choose to develop them.

Myth: We must choose between energy and the enviroment.
Fact: The energy industry has made great advances in finding ways to reduce the enviromental impact of oil and gas production.

Myth: Alternative fuels are a magic bulet.
Fact: For the short term most available energy sources are fossil fuel based. It will take time to develop alternative energy.

Myth: We can conserve our way to energy security.
Fact: Conservation and energy efficient technologies will help but won't be the total solution.

[Schmuto]

Stooge.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vampyregirl', '
')Myth: We must choose between energy and the enviroment.
Fact: The energy industry has made great advances in finding ways to reduce the enviromental impact of oil and gas production..

[vision-master]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Schmuto', 'S')tooge.

[ian807]

Myth: We are running out of oil.
Fact: Oil resources are out there, should we choose to develop them.

Fact: Oil resource development takes time, money and energy. In some cases, it will take major technological breakthroughs (e.g. Shale oil, Bakken http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911&from=rss_home) to make extraction both cost effective and energy positive.

Fact: Some breakthroughs themselves can cause ecological disaster (e.g. nukes in tar sands: http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com/2005/10/126-nuke-tar-sands-2.html). Oh, and let's hope that stuff never mixes with oxygen as happened with coal here: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania).

Fact: Real world constraints of money, time and technology make quite of bit of the worlds hydrocarbons effectively useless.

Fact: Answers are easy for children, college sophomores and anyone else who doesn't actually have to develop and implement them. The real world is *much* harder than anything you will ever encounter in school.

[Hermes]

Myth: vampyregirl knows what he's talking about
Fact: he has a pile of propaganda pamphlets he randomly draws from for his writings to keep his Exxon overlords' monthly checks coming.

[vampyregirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Hermes', 'M')yth: vampyregirl knows what he's talking about
Fact: he has a pile of propaganda pamphlets he randomly draws from for his writings to keep his Exxon overlords' monthly checks coming.

[Hermes]

Nevermind me, Vagi - why don't you respond to the people who just shot a bunch of holes through your blathering?

Hop to it! Good luck!

[TheDude]

Nice pics, Ludi. Did you bookmark my non-verbal retort to Auntie Doomer? These cornucopians will turn the planet into a slag heap if you give 'em enough time. Kudos to whoever linked to the short story The People of Sand and Slag - is this what the Wii crowd wants? Hmmm? Earth as Satanic Mill with copious integrated circuits?

[vampyregirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ian807', '[')i]Myth: We are running out of oil.
Fact: Oil resources are out there, should we choose to develop them.

Fact: Oil resource development takes time, money and energy. In some cases, it will take major technological breakthroughs (e.g. Shale oil, Bakken http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911&from=rss_home) to make extraction both cost effective and energy positive.

Fact: Some breakthroughs themselves can cause ecological disaster (e.g. nukes in tar sands: http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com/2005/10/126-nuke-tar-sands-2.html). Oh, and let's hope that stuff never mixes with oxygen as happened with coal here: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania).

Fact: Real world constraints of money, time and technology make quite of bit of the worlds hydrocarbons effectively useless.

Fact: Answers are easy for children, college sophomores and anyone else who doesn't actually have to develop and implement them. The real world is *much* harder than anything you will ever encounter in school.

[vampyregirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vampyregirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ian807', '[')i]Myth: We are running out of oil.
Fact: Oil resources are out there, should we choose to develop them.

Fact: Oil resource development takes time, money and energy. In some cases, it will take major technological breakthroughs (e.g. Shale oil, Bakken http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1911&from=rss_home) to make extraction both cost effective and energy positive.

Fact: Some breakthroughs themselves can cause ecological disaster (e.g. nukes in tar sands: http://peakoildebunked.blogspot.com/2005/10/126-nuke-tar-sands-2.html). Oh, and let's hope that stuff never mixes with oxygen as happened with coal here: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania).

Fact: Real world constraints of money, time and technology make quite of bit of the worlds hydrocarbons effectively useless.

Fact: Answers are easy for children, college sophomores and anyone else who doesn't actually have to develop and implement them. The real world is *much* harder than anything you will ever encounter in school.

[vampyregirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I') asked because rather than respond to my individual issues you cherry picked a few answers poorly, and then acted out like a school child ("I don't work for Exxon you retard," "is the best you can do then you really are pathetic" etc.) when questioned about you lack of serious response.

You do not compose yourself like an adult, much less one employed in the oil industry as you claim.

[vampyregirl]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('vampyregirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', 'I') asked because rather than respond to my individual issues you cherry picked a few answers poorly, and then acted out like a school child ("I don't work for Exxon you retard," "is the best you can do then you really are pathetic" etc.) when questioned about you lack of serious response.

You do not compose yourself like an adult, much less one employed in the oil industry as you claim.

[ian807]

vampyregirl, I know I came off as condescending, but I'm hearing the same thing repetitively. I'm surrounded by cheery optimistic people (usually in their 20s) who just kind of assume we'll figure out all the answers to the energy crisis and that everything will work out like some sort of movie.

Until I press for specifics. *How* will we make remaining reserves more profitable? *How many* of the remaining oil fields can be profitably mined? What new technologies are you depending on? *Why* do you think *that* technology is the answer? And so on.

And they come up empty. Just... empty. They just have this feeling and they seem as trusting as sheep. I can't help but think of sheep when I see them. I think of Jews who didn't see it coming. I think of Rwanda. I think of Americans who were blindsided by an entirely predictable economic bubble.

So optimists scare me now. I think they're not going to do well in the next decade or two. I think they'll be a danger to themselves and me. I think they'll learn more about guns, dictatorships and starvation then they ever wanted to. There are just too many different problems converging too fast (energy, food production, water, economics) for humans to get through the next century without a significant die-off. I think it through and I hate the conclusions I'm reaching. My hatred, of course, is irrelevant. Reality doesn't care.

So I tend to overreact. Apologies.