The New York Times on Peak Oil – Don't Worry, Be Happy

The question is not about Lynch’s fervent cornucopian beliefs and free-market faith – it’s about the New York Times and other American media outlets that have consistently missed what’s actually happening within the Peak Oil debate.

What’s actually happening reminds me of what happened years ago with the global warming debate. Then, a climactic theory largely pioneered by scientists (as Peak Oil was largely pioneered by geologists) was initially either ignored or denied in the media, and only began to gain traction as the evidence solidified and the things they predicted began coming true.
The fact is that if the Peak Oil proponents are correct, it amounts to one of the biggest stories of our time, right up there with global warming. I am not a scientist so I cannot tell you with absolute, iron certainty that they are right, but I do know this:

When you read the literature and compare the arguments as laid out by the two sides, the Peak Oil argument is characterized by logic, rigor, data and hard science – just like the global warming argument a few years back – and the opposing side is characterized by, well, by unbounded faith that markets always work and technology always saves us, by paranoid suspicions that the Peak Oil concept is a plot (by radical tree-huggers or venal oil speculators, take your pick) and by assorted Hail Mary passes.

For example, Lynch bases part of his optimism on the idea that there is five times as much oil in the ground as most geologists believe, or as the data support. Raymond J. Learsy, who frequently posts here, suggests we should be skeptical of Peak Oil because perhaps oil is not a fossil fuel at all, but rather comes from the geological forces deep within earth’s interior and is almost limitless, as certain Stalin-era scientists suggested.

Again, it is their right to feel that way, as much as their arguments sound increasingly like creation science. But as for the media, you would think editors would realize the issue is a serious one, look at the track record of both sides, and perhaps decide to give a few column inches to people who have the embarrassing habit of making predictions that actually come true.

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