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Peak oil awareness
November 26, 2007 by Eric the Leaf, 1 year 49 weeks ago
Comment id: 26171
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I have read the Backer et. al. report and it is an outstanding summary of the peak oil crisis using some of the latest information available. I think their effort to bring awareness of the issue in CT is remarkable. Fred also deserves credit for his persistence in pursuing the topic on the Science Blog. However, the news is grim indeed.
I wonder how this report is being received and if Terry Backer can keep Fred up-to-date somehow. I also agree that local action is vital, and that begins with promoting education and awareness.
Peak oil is slowly becoming more mainstream, no doubt in part due to rising oil and gasoline prices. Still, the usual suspects are often trotted out to explain what is going on—refinery problems, terrorist attacks or threats, growing demand in China and India, market speculation, etc. These certainly are relevant matters, but the underlying geological reality is dangerous territory to tread.
That the market will respond with readily available alternative technologies or tap “prodigious†unconventional oil opportunities are often seized upon to deflect concern or minimize the depth of the crisis. The latter is frequently the basis for the more optimistic dates for peak (such as CERA), usually citing available or recoverable reserves that include tar sands and oil shales. These estimates fail to account for production rates and other energy and water related constraints on production. In other words, the stated availability (production/unit time) of the resource is misleading, approaching fanciful. The basis for estimates used by the federal government (the USGS 2000 report) now appears wildly optimistic and reassessments are beginning to bear this out, as stated in the Backer et. al. report.
In my opinion the Backer report and many of the other resources cited by Fred are the place to begin your research if you are new to the issue. Inform yourself and others.
(By the way, I was unable to open the Grinzo pdf file. Hopefully, I’ll have the opportunity to read it when the problem is solved.)