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Page added on December 2, 2013
Peak Oil Denial: Nonsense Keeps Rolling Along
[D]enial strategies suppress both facts and emotions, maladaptive coping strategies admit some of the facts and allow some of the emotions, both often in distorted form, and adaptive coping strategies accept the facts and allow the emotions to be felt, thus promoting more positive behaviours. The three groups of coping strategies may be considered to be sequential in the sense that moving from the first to the second and the second to the third requires that obstacles be overcome….
Some people who use denial strategies are likely to remain ‘stuck’ there regardless of the evidence. (links/references in the original quote) [1]
Those comments were written as part of a study on climate change denial, but their application is easily and accurately extended to peak oil denial and any number of political issues where too many prefer avoiding contemplation of the consequences of ideological principles … but I digress.
Another set of articles and opinion pieces have found their way into the blogosphere in recent weeks—some more ridiculous than others. All, however, share the same tired arguments loosely-constructed from a tenuous fact or two and then magically transformed into the definitive responses to we doom-and-gloom purveyors who get our jollies from sharing facts, evidence, information, and assorted other failings of reality.
This latest in a seemingly never-ending series of posts about peak oil denial and the playbook consistently referenced by the fossil fuel industry’s Happy Talk cheerleaders will examine this most recent collection.
‘There is a new energy reality of vast domestic resources of oil and natural gas brought about by advancing technology… For the first time in generations, we are able to see that our energy supply is no longer limited, foreign, and finite; it is American and abundant.’ [2]
As I’ve noted in numerous posts, I get all tingly when “vast” resources serve as the high-point of the denial machine discussions. “Awash” is a close second….
Notwithstanding some environmental concerns, newly accessible oil and natural-gas resources are being loosed across the United States at such a rate that the nation essentially now is awash in them. [3]
And of course, the always-popular might-perhaps-possibly-could-if-only-maybe:
This [northeastern Nevada] is just one of many potential locations all around the US that could possibly have oil. [4]
Geez….
Phil Plait recently offered his perspective discussing the equally-prominent climate change denial operation still rolling along at top-speed … facts be damned:
I recently posted yet another debunking of a climate change denial post. The claims made by the writer, David Rose, were not just flatly wrong, but actually ridiculous….[H]e made a pile of other easily disproven statements that didn’t come within a glancing blow of reality.
I’ll admit: It’s no fun writing about this kind of thing. I hate it. I hate having to do it. I’d much rather be writing about galaxies and Saturn and supernovae, and it’s depressing to wake up in the morning and see yet another nonsensical article that I know will get repeated endlessly in the deny-o-sphere echo chamber.
But that’s precisely why I have to slog through it. The more people who can show these claims for what they are — wrong, willfully or otherwise — the better.
Why? Because, sadly, the people who deny the reality around them have a very large megaphone, and in some cases have a lot of motivation to use it. Money, power, riling up the electorate, or, perhaps worst of all, pure zealotry. Nothing is as impenetrable as an armor wrought from fervent ideology.
It’s also upsetting to know that we have the facts, the science, the scientists, and really all of reality on our side. But human nature is a contrary beast, and doubt is a seed that grows lushly in dark places.
It is also easily fed and nurtured, needing only a handful of voices to grow. These voices are legion. (links in the original quote) [5]
I know just how he feels.
A quick check of this blog’s Peak Oil Denial Category will reveal dozens of posts/series I’ve written on that very issue. Three years ago, I offered this in response to a plea on how to more effectively share the message of peak oil:
[Some] advised that finding an ‘enemy’ might be the most effective strategy. The accepted target was the fossil fuel industry. One rationale offered is that facts alone are not enough (true, sad to say), and by demonizing an easily-demonized entity, the peak oil movement may find more sympathetic listeners. I can’t argue with the rationale, but I wonder if the convenience and expediency of targeting the usual bad-guy is the best choice.
I’d like to offer a different enemy—one also easy enough to aim at for a variety of reasons, but critical to those of us who carry legitimate concerns about what life will be like in the years to come as declining oil production becomes apparent….
Why not go after those for whom facts are mere inconveniences to be disregarded when they conflict with a narrow-minded and clearly self-serving agenda? At the risk of starting a cat fight where truth may too quickly become a casualty, why don’t we more forcefully challenge those who deny peak oil (and global warming) and who do so for reasons that generally ignore reality in favor of narrowly-defined interests? Those motivations will ultimately do nothing but promote more eventual harm by denying the truths to those who clearly need them the most….
The far right all-too-consistently tosses out these oh-so-helpful hints [discussed in that post] without bothering to discuss all the (or even any) facts which, in the real world we inhabit, make their suggestions ludicrously impossible to fulfill. Of course, we run the risk of getting bogged down in he said/she-said arguments that quickly devolve into the lowest forms of ‘debate’, but why let those types of offerings go unchallenged? They feed on themselves, and it is tiresome and time-consuming to have to rebut all the nonsense. But if we don’t, uninformed readers and listeners have no reason to at least consider the possibility that there may indeed be other facts out there that should at least be examined in order to make informed assessments, rather than accepting the words of the few. More information is rarely a bad thing, and giving everyone the opportunity to examine the facts and engage in rational discourse as a means of seeking common ground makes for a healthier and more productive society.
I haven’t wavered in that belief, and the recent articles alluded to above give me yet another chance or two to bat down some more of the nonsense passing as advice and learned observations about the world of energy supply.
I’ll have more to say in Part 2.
15 Comments on "Peak Oil Denial: Nonsense Keeps Rolling Along"
Hugh Culliton on Mon, 2nd Dec 2013 9:33 pm
Nothing to worry about ma’am. The ship’s fine. Just go back to your cabin.
RICHARD RALPH ROEHL on Mon, 2nd Dec 2013 9:38 pm
DENIAL! DENIAL! DENIAL! is the refuge of cowards infected with insecure eeego.
Bob Inget on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 1:15 am
Looking for an enemy, look no further.
I’m your worst enemy, I’m a champion denier.
Oh, I believe in AGW, peak cheap oil,
how could any sane, literate person not.
How am I a denier then, you might ask?
Pragmatism, in word.
When some 13 years ago I found out about peak oil and anthropogenic warming
the first thing that struck me, existing
oil companies with proven reserves were
in line to make big bucks. Oil prices at the time were low but it looked like another Bush could be elected which
again was bullish for oil. Bearish for humans. Kidding myself (denial)”in self defence” invested a small legacy from my late mother in a handful of dividend paying Majors. While waiting to get rich, I put up a 7 K solar array.
(talk about trying to bribe the gods)
I was able to do this because of the neat tax shelter for my oil company
dividends. When the hammer fell in 2008
my income hardly suffered and with
some spare cash I bought even more oil stocks on the cheap. With no utility bills, on Medicare, Social Security, this denier is on the loose.
Now with very real effects of AGW effecting us all, it’s my belief the long sleep-walk is over. Like it or not mankind is beginning to make moves towards survival.There plans for solar
desalination, sea walls and gates, electric cars still in their infancy, are a reality. Hydrogen fuel cells, compressed air, CNG… progress that would never have happened were it not for so called ‘Climate Change’ and Peak Oil.
Here’s another reason to hate me.
IMO, Global Warming is irreversible.
As I’ve said, we are already there.
In the past 75 years mankind has been so busy loading up on greenhouse gasses in a pipeline that figuratively, could reach the moon. The fact that China and India are burning so much coal is but another sign of desperation. Asian leaders know the dreadful harm coal is doing. They also know ‘there are No Alternatives’..
Many posters here are of the opinion there is No Hope. No hope for life the way is ‘was’, perhaps. But for many, life wasn’t that great. AS child I recall the beginnings of WW/2. Those were darker days but we pulled together.
WE Will do so again.
Recently I’ve begun to sell off oil & gas stocks and reinvesting in centralized solar, wind and gas utilities for the same reasons I invested in E&P’s in the first place.
Pragmatism!
I simply DENY we humans will just call it quits by killing each other with new weapons until this little planet’s population becomes manageable.
BillT on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 1:34 am
Well, I see the idea of ‘investing’ part of the world’s problem. The uncontrolled world of ‘for profit’ capitalism is the knife in our back and the continued support of ‘for profit’ capitalism is twisting it and pushing it deeper. You sir, are part of the problem.
There will be no stock market soon. Nothing of real wealth outside of potable water, food, and shelter. There will be no ‘manageable’ population until we are back to pre-hydrocarbon levels and even then, it is not likely our species will survive to 2100.
You are too old to care. Like most old men in the ‘developed’ world, you want more than your share and don’t care about the next generations because you don’t have long to live.
Before you accuse me of being some young dumb punk, I am 69 and an educated American, but not proud of it.
mo on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 2:47 am
Whew
mo on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 2:59 am
I think ill go watch sleepy hollow now
ghung on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 2:29 pm
@BillT: I’m on the same page. I grew up with the wealthy who’s primary focus was the accumulation of surpluses; little growth creatures who spent much of their latter years patting themselves on the back or accepting accolades for giving some of it back, leaving behind offspring who sometimes had an appreciation of what they inherited, but for little else. More growth creatures, utterly convinced of the rightness of their positions and that they had somehow “earned their keep”. Entitled.
I spotted their pathology early on, perhaps with the guidance of those who were content with taking what they needed, leaving the rest. It took a couple of more decades for it to sink in that I didn’t want to be remembered as a growth monkey. I’m not sure if hubris is learned or hard-coded, but somehow I missed out.. The current social/economic paradigm makes it hard to not participate in the ‘great extraction’ process, but it’s not impossible to find an MOL (minimum operating level) that doesn’t involve inventing ways to deny future generations the opportunity to simply take what they need.
Too bad Jevons was right. Whatever I choose to leave behind because I don’t need it will quickly be snatched up, extracted, burned, ruined, destroyed, and discarded by some growth monkey, utterly convinced of the rightness of their actions. Choosing to be complicit in this process isn’t sapience, it’s insanity.
ghung on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 2:41 pm
@Bob I. – “I simply DENY we humans will just call it quits by killing each other with new weapons until this little planet’s population becomes manageable.”
Yeah, but what about the rest of the Earthlings? Easy to discount them, eh? After all, we discount our fellow humans, present and future, our own kin.
GregT on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 5:16 pm
“I simply DENY we humans will just call it quits by killing each other with new weapons until this little planet’s population becomes manageable.”
We humans will not need to kill each other off with ‘new weapons’. The ‘old weapons’ of human greed, overconsumption, and environmental degradation, will allow the Earth to do it for us.
Yours, and others, insatiable appetites for a ‘bigger piece of the pie’, is a very BIG part of our collective problem.
adamc18 on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 5:17 pm
It’s too late. Take a look at the ‘Arctic-news’ website or AMEG – Methane is now pouring out of the Arctic Ocean to cause runaway global warming. Global temperatures will rise by 5degrees celsius by 2060 leading rapidly to global extinction. Sorry it’s such bad news.
Malarchy on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 6:50 pm
Can someone please point me to a scientific and sensible website that will explain precisely how 5 degrees of warming leads to global extinction. Or does it just mean human extinction?
adamc18 on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 9:21 pm
@Malarchy
In the runaway climate heating process implied by the massive release of Arctic methane, temperatures would not level out at an extra 5 degrees centigrade in 2060; they would just keep on rising. Most climatologists would agree that a global rise of 5 degrees would see almost the entire world’s food production wiped out, as well as the progressive extinction of all terrestrial and sea life.
GregT on Tue, 3rd Dec 2013 10:10 pm
Malarchy,
Perhaps Guy McPherson, former Professor Emeritus of Natural Resources and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the university of Arizona, might give some incite to your question:
http://vimeo.com/78610016
Malarchy on Wed, 4th Dec 2013 2:06 pm
@ adamc18 & GregT
Thanks guys. Guy McPherson is a real bundle of laughs!!
GregT on Thu, 5th Dec 2013 3:52 pm
Malarchy,
Guy McPherson is by no means alone in his outlook.
I hope you are being facetious. If not, you have a very morbid sense of humour.