by drgoodword » Sat 24 Nov 2007, 06:31:47
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Atlantean_Relic', '[')url=http://forum.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=126407]Typical.[/url]
Ad hominem is starting to role out.
Reading through that linked thread reinforces my sense of the hopelessness of trying to explain peak oil to the masses. Firstly, people, in general, have a very poor knowledge of history. The lessons from the late 70's oil crisis and other economic crises are lost on them (one of the posters in that thread said, with what I take to be a straight face, that the great depression "wasn't so bad"). Secondly, few people seem to understand the role of oil in our contemporary industrial world. If you don't understand that oil is more than just what makes cars go, you won't be very impressed with the implications of peak oil, even if you can understand the basic concept behind it.
The "optimists," there as well as here, always, it seems to me, fall on two key issues: scalability and EROEI. Few people here will argue that there are no substitutes for oil as an energy source. The big questions are whether these alternatives can provide enough energy and how quickly can we build them. Time and again, when a hard analysis is done, every alternative falls very short of sufficiently replacing the energy role of oil.
Other than complete misanthropes and nihilists, no one can say anything good about peal oil. The only small drop of satisfaction, amidst a torrent of pain and suffering, will be the shell-shocked pollyannas finally admitting that peak oil really is a big problem after all.