When you manage to hold somebody down to make an argument it is either we have a lot more than “they” say. Ot it is abiotic. The funny thing is “they”, being official sources say it is very far off as well. It is only a small group of independent geologists that pushed it since 99 and developed a following that say it is sooner. So in reality people the call it a scam have the same stance as official sources. Which is not in the forseeable future, no need to worry. Funny how that works. It’s like they are battling for the official line which is not to worry. Like tools of the USG.

The abiotic argument is a boondoggle as well. If oil is abiotic, we would still have a peak when the earth’s mantel reached it’s max flow rate.

So really the whole debate is haggling over when.

The “peak now” crowd wants local economy, decentralized control, No globalization, renewable energy and resources. If you really dig down into peak oil you will understand that fractional reserve lending and fiat money can’t be a possibility, so therefore banking has to be changed. Actually M. King Hubbert thought interest on loans was a bad idea and not compatible with nature.

So what is the “peak scam” crowd really arguing for?

I have no problem with nations, including the US, nationalizing all natural resources.

But for me, capitalism is not the problem nor is socialism the solution. Not only “big oil” but oil exporting countries are making record profits off the US war in the ME. Which is perhaps why we do not see OPEC and Vienna or Russia or others seriously demanding an end to the war after 5 years. Ka-ching ka-ching.

Greed is the enemy and will corrupt every “ism.” Will greed die out with capitalism? How will socialists whip greed?

Example, BP, which got its start as Anglo-Persian Oil Company, and from 1908 extracted and sold Iranian oil at any price it wanted, and paid the Iranian government just 12% (which got raised in 1930s to 16%) of the accrued profits. This continued until 1951, when Iranian oil was nationalized; which led to the replacement of our democratically elected government in 1953, through a CIA-led coup. This single coup changed the path of the entire subsequent history of Iran, for the worse. Now, that’s some expensive price to pay by the Iranians for supposedly ‘easy’ or ‘cheap’ oil. So, that’s one point.

2. The U.S. has a lot of oil, and the mainstream media under-report the actual figures of available oil in the U.S. So, dig up your own damned oil and leave us alone!

There are strategic reasons why the ruling classes in the U.S. understate the actual amount of oil available in the U.S. In my opinion, one way to assure strategic supremacy is to make sure you have strategic reserves of the energy and fuel that keep a highly mechanized society (and, more importantly, mechanized armed forces) running, long after (or at least for some time after) everybody else has run out of theirs. So, leftists in the U.S. need to take account of this in the political activities and advocacies.

3. I don’t have fundamental issues with the Peak Oil numbers per se (except to point out that there is a lot more American oil than you were led to believe). I know and understand (or at least assume) that we are dealing with a finite resource. I am not saying (since I have no idea) that oil is renewable, or that it is infinite. I don’t know. So, I will assume that it is finite.

My third point is this: no matter when the stuff runs out (in 30, 50, or a 100 years), we as socialists (progressives, what have you) must have a SOLUTION! Capitalists have their solutions for how to own it, use it and control it NOW, and have their solutions for when this shit runs out. We must also have solutions for its ownership and use NOW! We must demand socialization of all natural resources (yes, BE outrageous, why not! Stop thinking like slaves, accepting whatever terms are handed you)! Why should we wait till this natural resource is all gone? It is OUR resource too.

Capitalism will not just disappear simply because oil runs out. Capitalism is 600 years old, and only in the last 150 years it has been boosted by the access to oil. With all the resources at their command, and before all the oil is gone, capitalists can develop (and PRIVATIZE) all sorts of alternative sources of energy, and when oil is finished, they’ll be in the absolutely stronger position to impose an even more barbaric and unequal class system on humanity. Don’t assume for a second that the end of oil will bring about the end of capitalism. Not at all!

The only thing that will end capitalism is an organized working class (i.e., 90% of people in the U.S.); organized with a socialist consciousness. There is no short cut, and the capitalists will not die out automatically. In fact, they can morph into far more barbaric species of humans and impose far more barbaric systems on us.

“Peak oil” is a scam, fraud – however, “peak profits” is real.

evie said on June 30th, 2008 at 9:51 am:

The long emergency situation? Lol. Downscale. Your oily addictive way-of-life is unsustainable (pssssssssssst also known as shipping economic growth abroad).Say hello to third world white folks. Park your cars and welcome to the back of a very crowded bus.

Everybody: check your medication!

Reza,
The key disconnect in your repudiation of peak oil is that “there is plenty left”. The problem is, easy oil was called that for a reason. The tough oil requires manpower we don’t have, rigs we don’t have and knowledge we haven’t discovered yet. Other than that, it’s a great solution.

I find some irony in your encouragement of tar sands & shale production. Isn’t it the poor minorities that get stuck living with all the effluent & pollution resulting from nasty industries? Oil sands production is one of the nastiest of all. I’m looking forward to your future blog post railing against minorities unable to find clean water due to pollution from oil sands.

Corporations are criminal, but so is ignorance.

Say hello to third world white folks. Park your cars and welcome to the back of a very crowded bus.

Complicating matters is a global oil predicament that is really not hard to understand, but which the organs of news and opinion have obdurately failed to explicate for an anxious public. Call it Peak Oil. There are only a few elements of it you need to know. 1.) that demand has now permanently outstripped supply; 2.) that new discoveries are too meager to offset consumption; 3.) That under under the circumstances, the systems we rely on for daily life are crumbling. I’ve called this situation The Long Emergency.
Our chances of mitigating this, and of continuing our current way-of-life is about zero. I’ve tried to promote the idea that rather than waste remaining resources in the futile attempt to sustain the unsustainable (i.e. come up with “solutions” to keep suburbia running), that we should begin immediately making other arrangements for daily life — mainly by downscaling and re-scaling everything from farming to commerce to the way we inhabit the landscape — but my suggestions have proven unpopular even among the “environmental” elites, who are too busy being entranced by new-and-groovy ways to keep all the cars running.

He is also correct when he states that the war on Iraq was for political reason — read Zionism — than it was for oil. War for Oil is a canard being “promoted” by the “left”.

Unfortunately there are too folks on the “left” unwilling to challenge Zionism and unwilling to deal with issues honestly.

These are interesting times whereby I find more honesty coming from the “right” these days.

This was an excellent analysis of the Peak Oil canard.

to recap:
“The argument in the essay seems unclear and based on a hazy understanding of peak oil.”
“I think you need to re-read the literature out on the internet and better understand the problem.”
“Your arguments are flawed…”
“wow.
this has got to be the ultimate in “straw man” essays.
what an utter waste of time.”

Your article conflates three issues capitalism, middle east war, and peak oil. Of course Cheney is in Iraq for the oil and wants the Iranian oil and gas also. The reason he is so desperate is peakoil. The U.S. runs on oil and without it there will be no need for overpaid GM and Exxon executives.

Having spoken to quite a few people about this subject – I find people fall into the following categories:

1) Those who read about the subject, understand the problems and start re-organising their lives to cope.
2) Those who read about the subject – but hope and pray that peak oil is sometime off.
3) Those who don’t want to know or understand and simply say it will be fine, or better next year or in ten years etc.

I think you need to re-read the literature out on the internet and better understand the problem.

Over the last year or so, she convinced me to (at least intermittently) get with George on TV, and I did that, loving his old-man, so-what? it’s just-death thingy, and recognizing, again, that absolutely fearless and infectious shitty grin. Recalling Lily One-Ring-a-Dingy and all the crazy late sixties broadcast wonders and some of what they meant and still mean.

RIP, George. As the saying goes, you found little enuf of it in this world.

I hope someone has the time and inclination to collate George Carlin’s best lines — like physicists did for Richard Feynman — and some day soon we can just internet to his comments on “Oil.”