I may have percolated this down to two key ideas. Peak oil and energy density. Availability of the cheap and easy to exploit oil is on the downslope. I live in Canada, and the tar sands is an ecological nightmare that makes us the climate change monster that ate the world. Peak oil is here, whether you believe it or not, governments are acting as if it is. Secondly, there is no alternative on the horizon that can match the cost/energy density of petroleum. Period. Turn out the lights.
I'd say that there's a slightest of slight indications that peak oil is here based on cutting over 50% of US East Coast oil refining capacity by July 2012. Closing a 495k bpd refinery in St. Croix that was a major supplier to east coast mean anything, like perhaps peak oil? Hmmm, nah. US didn't need all that east coast gasoline production. St Croix gasoline, don't need it either. US has way too much refining capacity and we drowning in gasoline. That's why it's so cheap.
In its November 2010 report, the IEA stated the global peak year as 2006, which fits with early signs of the global recession, and the continual tendency of fuel prices to spike as the economy tries to grow again.
The whole idea that the economy (& population) can grow forever is the core sickness. Why are so many people incapable of acknowledging limits on a sphere only 7,926 miles in diameter? A mere speck in the Universe.
To those of you who understand Peak Oil and the devastation it will bring - thanks you give me hope for the future. For those of you who don't believe we are running out of cheap oil - show me your evidence. Laying your hopes on new finds and new technology just isn't enough.
....And there is the matter of time. Will we find a powerful and relatively inexpensive substitute for oil? Given time, we may very well do so. But the chances of this happening AND being implemented before rising energy costs basically dismantle our existing economy are slim to nil.
Our economy was built on cheap, easy to extract, and very powerful energy. Take the 'cheap', 'easy', and/or 'powerful' away and you have a reduced economy. An economy that REQUIRES growth will not react well.
Neo-liberal economists (cornucopians) - Forbes - maintain that resource limits are not possible. The theory goes that technological advances and resource substitutions will offset any limits. And there are actually quite a lot of previous examples to support the theory.
But this is a mighty big risk to bet all our eggs on. And there is little to no evidence that existing technologies will replace the massive (and growing) amounts of oil production NECESSARY to keep the economy from contracting.
....4) it assumes that big oil is not aware that peaks in the oil price actually kill demand - dramatically lowering sales and per barrel cost, 5) it ignores that a peak is inevitable anyway with a finite resource, 6) it requires tens of thousands of active participants fully willing to conspire in something and not speak about it, and 7) it requires co-conspirators like Michael Ruppert, Richard Heinberg, and Prof. Al Bartlett (which is entirely laughable).
On the argument that oil companies have created the concept of peak oil to make more money - this can be approached in just a common sense way.
1) If this is the case, why didn't they do it sooner?, 2) why are we drilling farther and farther offshore and turning to sources like tar sands and oil shale (if this is a ploy by big oil, why would they move to far higher production costs?), 3) if this was big oil trying to convince society, why does society as a whole not know about peak oil?....
We'll have a lot of normalcy bias about peak oil until we've spent 5-10 years on the downslope past the plateau. Unfortunately, this is likely to be well after a very hairy market and global economic contraction.
This topic isn't being discussed on a national level. Videos like this are good as a warning bell to the few - but we won't be able to mobilize entire countries into aggressive preparations (except Sweden). The most rational response is adaptation on a personal level.
United States Venezuela Libya Other Middle East Kuwait Iran Indonesia Romania Trinidad & Tobago Iraq Brunei Tunisia Peru Cameroon Other Europe & Eurasia Russian Federation Egypt Other Asia Pacific India Syria Gabon Argentina Colombia United Kingdom Rep. of Congo (Brazzaville) Uzbekistan Australia Norway Oman Yemen Other S. & Cent. America Mexico Malaysia Vietnam Denmark Other Africa Nigeria Chad Italy Ecuador Saudi Arabia
@njparkin And who is responsible for these peak production lists? We invade oil rich countries not so that we can pump their oil, but to prevent them from doing so and flooding the market thus decreasing the price and the leverage these massive corporations have over humanity. Artificial scarcity = profits and control, and the next step is carbon taxes which is also a creation of banks and oil companies
Past production data is in the public domain as the oil is released onto the open market.
If these 'massive corperations' were sitting on untapped capacity then why are they spending billions on tar sands and cleaning up pelicans in the gulf. Yes there is scarcity but it is not artificial.
@njparkin Spend billions to make trillions.These oil companies are property of the banks for the most part. During the BP crisis the company's priamry shareholders were Goldman Sachs and the Queen of England. Control over the energy production of the world far outweighs the importance of a few billion (tax subsidized) dollars spent here and there to keep up the charade. Hell Tesla invented technology that harnessed energy right from the ionsphere before JP Morgan shut him down.
@moonsugar1 Yes its a crazy concept to think that the oil companies and banks who control basically everything would be in a postion to lie to us about Peak Oil or repress technology that would free us from that dependence. It also crazy to think that these companies which have their hands in nearly every important position in government in nearly every country and whould be able to somehow manipulate the data concerning the supply of this oil. Crazy indeed.
@moonsugar1 Ask yourself why no matter how many oil rich countries we invade or control, the price of oil only seems to go up? The more oil gained by the western monolpolies, the higher the price goes. That is the hallmark sign of supply manipulation.
@dolphwong What are you talking about? High Oil prices are BAD for oil companies, they dont want the price to go up. They make more money by selling more of it at a cheaper price, especially in economic times like this because recession cuts down demand. This happened again in the first weeks of August as the markets started to fall, and they subsequently cut the price.
Even if what you are saying WERE true, which it isnt, the uploader already proved to you that Peak Oil would still happen.
@moonsugar1 Exxon-Mobil, the world’s biggest and most profitable corporation, raked in a staggering $10.7 billion in profits during the first quarter of 2011, the company reported Thursday. The figure was a 69 percent increase over the same quarter last year, and the highest quarterly profit since 2008, the last time oil prices topped $100 a barrel- high prices are only bad for products that actually have to compete against viable alternatives. People have to buy oil no matter what the price
@dolphwong So what? Oil comapnies have always been some of the most profitable in human history, if you understand how important and widely used oil is, not only in the transportation sector, then you would know that for decades before this stuff was sold at a really LOW rate for the uses and energy it actually gave us.
The Price will get much higher over the next few years as supply is already struggling to meet demand.
But its not soley because "Corporations bad, make money out of people."
@moonsugar1 Did you miss the part about RECORD profits because oil went above $100 a barrel. Artificial scarcity has always been the tool of the elite to control the masses, thats why Goldman Sachs is sitting on huge warehouses full of aluminum right now so that they can manipulate the price at their leisure. I'm tired of arguing this point, we shoudn't even be using oil anyway but all the better clean technolgy has been buried. "Peak oil" is not a problem for those in power,only us.
@dolphwong It went that high because the Economy Crashed. You said Peak Oil is a myth, which is just plain wrong. For all your intelligence and inside knowledge of the elites and Oil companies, you are in fact refusing to believe that a finite resource will peak in its production and go into terminal decline.
@moonsugar1 I'm done. Google this: Debunking the Myth of Peak Oil Why the Age of Cheap Oil is Far From Over- ..........if you want a different perspective. Ween rocks!
@dolphwong Hey dummy, the profit of Exxon WAS $10.7 Billion, but the fucking sales revenue was $114 Billion. If you ad a GodDamn calculator, you would see that is only 9.4%. Since the wholesale gasoline price is about $2.90 Gal, that is a whole 27 cents profit per gallon. The Govt in Calif takes 60 cents out, at the pump. Go bitch about something else.
@bolshevikML Bolshe...please stop. 200 Countries what!?? How about ONE country. At present, there is arguably only ONE country with the excess capacity to ramp up exports. Saudi Arabia. Sure Iraq, Canada and a handful of others will likely see small export increase over the next few years but they are at full tilt now and their increase will not be enough to offset the decline in the BIGGEST PETROLEUM PRODUCERS on that list, Saudi, Russia, Venezuela, Mexico....etc
Completely wrong...they don't need to create a bottleneck, its here in the form of 6% decline rates a year. That is public record. Dimwits from the AEI and others like you who attempt to muddy the debate and confuse the average american (arguably the least informed cohort in the history of stupidity) are dooming the whole planet to crushing poverty and historic levels of misery.
@Vinniemac750 This is a pointless argument, we shouldn't even need oil. Watch this movie on you tube: The Truth Behind The Energy Lie (Supression Of Technological Evolution, The Evidence)
Check out Technocracy Technate information. M. King Hubbert was himself a Technocrat. The time is up for our Price System. We can't expect to grow in a thermodynamic closed system called earth. Energy is the only reason why we are able to grow, now we need a new humanitarian solution. Energy accounting is our best chance, check it out.
I may have percolated this down to two key ideas. Peak oil and energy density. Availability of the cheap and easy to exploit oil is on the downslope. I live in Canada, and the tar sands is an ecological nightmare that makes us the climate change monster that ate the world. Peak oil is here, whether you believe it or not, governments are acting as if it is. Secondly, there is no alternative on the horizon that can match the cost/energy density of petroleum. Period. Turn out the lights.
Vinniemac750 1 week ago
I'd say that there's a slightest of slight indications that peak oil is here based on cutting over 50% of US East Coast oil refining capacity by July 2012. Closing a 495k bpd refinery in St. Croix that was a major supplier to east coast mean anything, like perhaps peak oil? Hmmm, nah. US didn't need all that east coast gasoline production. St Croix gasoline, don't need it either. US has way too much refining capacity and we drowning in gasoline. That's why it's so cheap.
LightReuse 2 weeks ago
In its November 2010 report, the IEA stated the global peak year as 2006, which fits with early signs of the global recession, and the continual tendency of fuel prices to spike as the economy tries to grow again.
The whole idea that the economy (& population) can grow forever is the core sickness. Why are so many people incapable of acknowledging limits on a sphere only 7,926 miles in diameter? A mere speck in the Universe.
4aSteadyStateEconomy 3 months ago
To those of you who understand Peak Oil and the devastation it will bring - thanks you give me hope for the future. For those of you who don't believe we are running out of cheap oil - show me your evidence. Laying your hopes on new finds and new technology just isn't enough.
DeckHazen 3 months ago
....And there is the matter of time. Will we find a powerful and relatively inexpensive substitute for oil? Given time, we may very well do so. But the chances of this happening AND being implemented before rising energy costs basically dismantle our existing economy are slim to nil.
Our economy was built on cheap, easy to extract, and very powerful energy. Take the 'cheap', 'easy', and/or 'powerful' away and you have a reduced economy. An economy that REQUIRES growth will not react well.
jimbills 3 months ago
@jimbills Very Well Put... 100% agreed
nathanjparkin 3 months ago
Neo-liberal economists (cornucopians) - Forbes - maintain that resource limits are not possible. The theory goes that technological advances and resource substitutions will offset any limits. And there are actually quite a lot of previous examples to support the theory.
But this is a mighty big risk to bet all our eggs on. And there is little to no evidence that existing technologies will replace the massive (and growing) amounts of oil production NECESSARY to keep the economy from contracting.
jimbills 3 months ago
....4) it assumes that big oil is not aware that peaks in the oil price actually kill demand - dramatically lowering sales and per barrel cost, 5) it ignores that a peak is inevitable anyway with a finite resource, 6) it requires tens of thousands of active participants fully willing to conspire in something and not speak about it, and 7) it requires co-conspirators like Michael Ruppert, Richard Heinberg, and Prof. Al Bartlett (which is entirely laughable).
jimbills 3 months ago
On the argument that oil companies have created the concept of peak oil to make more money - this can be approached in just a common sense way.
1) If this is the case, why didn't they do it sooner?, 2) why are we drilling farther and farther offshore and turning to sources like tar sands and oil shale (if this is a ploy by big oil, why would they move to far higher production costs?), 3) if this was big oil trying to convince society, why does society as a whole not know about peak oil?....
jimbills 3 months ago
We'll have a lot of normalcy bias about peak oil until we've spent 5-10 years on the downslope past the plateau. Unfortunately, this is likely to be well after a very hairy market and global economic contraction.
This topic isn't being discussed on a national level. Videos like this are good as a warning bell to the few - but we won't be able to mobilize entire countries into aggressive preparations (except Sweden). The most rational response is adaptation on a personal level.
jimbills 3 months ago
Whether actual scarcity or manufactured scarcity funded by the elite , the end result is the same for those on the bottom.
mycomama 4 months ago
Oil will never run out, you have nothing to worry about!
bolshevikML 4 months ago
@bolshevikML Thanks Bolshe, you have put my mind at rest!
nathanjparkin 4 months ago
@bolshevikML Yor insane
TheMidwestsk8ter 3 months ago
njparkin 7 months ago
Peak oil is a myth perpetrated by the oil companies to create a bottle neck in the supply and artificially inflate the price
dolphwong 7 months ago
@dolphwong
Here is a list of 45 countries that have already peaked in production. Global production is simply a summation of the individual countries.
njparkin 7 months ago
@njparkin And who is responsible for these peak production lists? We invade oil rich countries not so that we can pump their oil, but to prevent them from doing so and flooding the market thus decreasing the price and the leverage these massive corporations have over humanity. Artificial scarcity = profits and control, and the next step is carbon taxes which is also a creation of banks and oil companies
dolphwong 7 months ago
@dolphwong
Past production data is in the public domain as the oil is released onto the open market.
If these 'massive corperations' were sitting on untapped capacity then why are they spending billions on tar sands and cleaning up pelicans in the gulf. Yes there is scarcity but it is not artificial.
njparkin 7 months ago 6
@njparkin Spend billions to make trillions.These oil companies are property of the banks for the most part. During the BP crisis the company's priamry shareholders were Goldman Sachs and the Queen of England. Control over the energy production of the world far outweighs the importance of a few billion (tax subsidized) dollars spent here and there to keep up the charade. Hell Tesla invented technology that harnessed energy right from the ionsphere before JP Morgan shut him down.
dolphwong 7 months ago
@dolphwong Will you shut up already. Go and post somewhere else.
moonsugar1 6 months ago
@moonsugar1 Yes its a crazy concept to think that the oil companies and banks who control basically everything would be in a postion to lie to us about Peak Oil or repress technology that would free us from that dependence. It also crazy to think that these companies which have their hands in nearly every important position in government in nearly every country and whould be able to somehow manipulate the data concerning the supply of this oil. Crazy indeed.
dolphwong 6 months ago
@moonsugar1 Ask yourself why no matter how many oil rich countries we invade or control, the price of oil only seems to go up? The more oil gained by the western monolpolies, the higher the price goes. That is the hallmark sign of supply manipulation.
dolphwong 6 months ago
@dolphwong What are you talking about? High Oil prices are BAD for oil companies, they dont want the price to go up. They make more money by selling more of it at a cheaper price, especially in economic times like this because recession cuts down demand. This happened again in the first weeks of August as the markets started to fall, and they subsequently cut the price.
Even if what you are saying WERE true, which it isnt, the uploader already proved to you that Peak Oil would still happen.
moonsugar1 6 months ago
@moonsugar1 Exxon-Mobil, the world’s biggest and most profitable corporation, raked in a staggering $10.7 billion in profits during the first quarter of 2011, the company reported Thursday. The figure was a 69 percent increase over the same quarter last year, and the highest quarterly profit since 2008, the last time oil prices topped $100 a barrel- high prices are only bad for products that actually have to compete against viable alternatives. People have to buy oil no matter what the price
dolphwong 6 months ago
@dolphwong So what? Oil comapnies have always been some of the most profitable in human history, if you understand how important and widely used oil is, not only in the transportation sector, then you would know that for decades before this stuff was sold at a really LOW rate for the uses and energy it actually gave us.
The Price will get much higher over the next few years as supply is already struggling to meet demand.
But its not soley because "Corporations bad, make money out of people."
moonsugar1 6 months ago
@moonsugar1 Did you miss the part about RECORD profits because oil went above $100 a barrel. Artificial scarcity has always been the tool of the elite to control the masses, thats why Goldman Sachs is sitting on huge warehouses full of aluminum right now so that they can manipulate the price at their leisure. I'm tired of arguing this point, we shoudn't even be using oil anyway but all the better clean technolgy has been buried. "Peak oil" is not a problem for those in power,only us.
dolphwong 6 months ago
@dolphwong It went that high because the Economy Crashed. You said Peak Oil is a myth, which is just plain wrong. For all your intelligence and inside knowledge of the elites and Oil companies, you are in fact refusing to believe that a finite resource will peak in its production and go into terminal decline.
Money has nothing to do with that.
moonsugar1 6 months ago
@moonsugar1 I'm done. Google this: Debunking the Myth of Peak Oil Why the Age of Cheap Oil is Far From Over- ..........if you want a different perspective. Ween rocks!
dolphwong 6 months ago
@dolphwong Damn straight! I like the tune on your page as well ;)
moonsugar1 6 months ago
@dolphwong Hey dummy, the profit of Exxon WAS $10.7 Billion, but the fucking sales revenue was $114 Billion. If you ad a GodDamn calculator, you would see that is only 9.4%. Since the wholesale gasoline price is about $2.90 Gal, that is a whole 27 cents profit per gallon. The Govt in Calif takes 60 cents out, at the pump. Go bitch about something else.
luvcheney1 6 months ago
@njparkin 45 countries? There are 200 countries in the world. The biggest petroleum producers are not on your list. Peak oil is a hoax.
bolshevikML 3 months ago
@bolshevikML Bolshe...please stop. 200 Countries what!?? How about ONE country. At present, there is arguably only ONE country with the excess capacity to ramp up exports. Saudi Arabia. Sure Iraq, Canada and a handful of others will likely see small export increase over the next few years but they are at full tilt now and their increase will not be enough to offset the decline in the BIGGEST PETROLEUM PRODUCERS on that list, Saudi, Russia, Venezuela, Mexico....etc
njparkin 3 months ago
@njparkin The peak oil bubble has burst! Read 'Peak Oil, Entirely Nonsense' at Forbes.
bolshevikML 3 months ago
@bolshevikML how is peak oil a hoax,so your saying there is unlimited oil in the planet. dont know when it will happen but it will happen
twilight8181 3 months ago
@dolphwong
Completely wrong...they don't need to create a bottleneck, its here in the form of 6% decline rates a year. That is public record. Dimwits from the AEI and others like you who attempt to muddy the debate and confuse the average american (arguably the least informed cohort in the history of stupidity) are dooming the whole planet to crushing poverty and historic levels of misery.
Vinniemac750 1 week ago
@Vinniemac750 This is a pointless argument, we shouldn't even need oil. Watch this movie on you tube: The Truth Behind The Energy Lie (Supression Of Technological Evolution, The Evidence)
dolphwong 1 week ago
Check out Technocracy Technate information. M. King Hubbert was himself a Technocrat. The time is up for our Price System. We can't expect to grow in a thermodynamic closed system called earth. Energy is the only reason why we are able to grow, now we need a new humanitarian solution. Energy accounting is our best chance, check it out.
newb2yutube 8 months ago
Peak Oil means no real growth and a lower standard of living....
MrEnergyCzar 8 months ago 23
@MrEnergyCzar thats a really...mild...way to put it
anarky4321 4 months ago
Energy is the 'currency' of the Universe
Money is the mythical manna of malevolent misery monkeys
lonewolfmtnz 9 months ago