The Balloon Goes Up: Are We At A Peak Oil Tipping Point?

The peak oil balloon, it may appear, is finally going up. Not only have we seen obvious signs like the highest oil price rise in history on June 6 (coincidentally the anniversary of D-Day which began the liberation of Europe in the Second World War), but Gordon Brown, accidental Prime Minister of a former oil exporting (1980-2005) country, may also be one of the unlikely envoys of truth.

At the end of May, in the UK Guardian newspaper, a left-leaning organ that the right-listing New Labour normally avoids like the plague, Brown says in no uncertain terms that the world is in trouble


In case the term ‘balloon goes up’ is unfamiliar, it derives from the First World War, when it was found that sending a balloon up was a good way of signaling over a long distance so that everyone could get synchronized in whatever it was they were trying to do. This was before text messaging and Facebook of course. I should admit that the purpose of this synchronization was not swimming or dancing but the launching of an artillery barrage, but that was not the balloon