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It’s CERA Week — Houston, we have a problem
Dave Cohen, The Oil Drum
It is CERA Week and, consequently, there is a steady stream of nonsense emanating from Houston. In this brief note, I will talk a bit more about what the concept Peak Oil is.
My remarks are in reaction to Running out of oil may not be the issue at all by Kristen Hays, reporting in the Houston Chronicle on February 14th on statements by John Watson, head of international exploration and production for Chevron, at the CERA conference.
All the talk of when the world will run out of oil could be rendered irrelevant because of geopolitical issues that block access to untapped reserves, the head of international exploration and production for Chevron Corp. said Wednesday.
…Another thing not spoken, which is little understood by the public, is that we already ran through most of our oil here in the West, and what a shame it is that those uncooperative people in the rest of the world won’t play by our rules – and give us what we want. This dilemma is compounded by the fact that some uppity countries in Asia are being quite assertive of their rights to a significant share of what oil remains. This “argument”, if you can dignify it with that term, presumes that it is only a matter of allowing the international oil companies to produce huge untapped resources in the large producing countries. Blame is assigned – the exporting nations are culpable for withholding their oil, either from greed, hostility or incompetence. Thus, the presuppositions – that 1) there are vast, untapped resources ripe for the picking and 2) these riches could be easily brought on stream in a timely way to satisfy ever-growing world demand – are not questioned.
Until Chevron’s Watson or Cobalt’s Bryant or organizations like CERA start dealing with reality – and leveling with the public – instead of engaging in wishful thinking or complaining about things they have no control over, we will have to listen endlessly to this empty discourse while doing nothing to mitigate the effects on world economies of a peak & decline of available oil supply, regardless of its causes. Let’s keep our eye on the ball. ..
Another thing not spoken, which is little understood by the public, is that we already ran through most of our oil here in the West, and what a shame it is that those uncooperative people in the rest of the world won’t play by our rules — and give us what we want. ..
(15 Feb 2007)
Great technical article responding to Big Oil’s disparaging of peak oil. –BA
Global Warming: It’s All About Energy
Michael T. Klare, Foreign Policy in Focus
Finally, after years of effort by dedicated scientists and activists like Al Gore, the issue of global warming has begun to receive the international attention it desperately needs. The publication on February 2 of the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), providing the most persuasive evidence to date of human responsibility for rising world temperatures, generated banner headlines around the world.
But while there is a growing consensus on humanity’s responsibility for global warming, policymakers have yet to come to terms with its principal cause: our unrelenting consumption of fossil fuels.
When talk of global warming is introduced into the public discourse, as in Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” it is generally characterized as an environmental problem, akin to water pollution, air pollution, pesticide abuse, and so on. This implies that it can be addressed – like those other problems – through a concerted effort to “clean up” our resource-utilization behavior, by substituting “green” products for ordinary ones, by restricting the release of toxic substances, and so on.
But global warming is not an “environmental” problem in the same sense as these others – it is an energy problem, first and foremost. Almost 90% of the world’s energy is supplied through the combustion of fossil fuels, and every time we burn these fuels to make energy we release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere; carbon dioxide, in turn, is the principal component of the “greenhouse gases” (GHGs) that are responsible for warming the planet. Energy use and climate change are two sides of the same coin.
(15 Feb 2007)
Michael Klare normally writes about the influence of energy supplies on international relations. Here he ties together the themes of climate change and fossil fuels, as many writers have been doing recently. -BA
Oil crisis constant concern
Tom Over, The Lantern (student paper, Ohio State University)
“The oil crisis will be here in three years. I don’t know many people who think we have ten years, anymore,” said Seppo Korpela, an Ohio State professor of mechanical engineering who has been trying for five years to raise public awareness about peak oil theory.
Korpela said the theory holds that when the world’s production of oil peaks, it will then decline, causing serious economic and social disruption unless viable substitutes for oil are found.
“As these things develop, society is going to be forced to make adjustments,” said Korpela, who has published articles about the issue. He has also spoken on campus to students and off-campus to organizations such as the Ohio Petroleum Marketers Association.
“If we have good public discourse, the country can move in the right direction,” he said. Korpela said there is a long way to go, however, to achieve a level of public concern that matches the seriousness of the issue.
“Most people have very little knowledge on what is happening with peak oil,” said Greg Washington, an OSU professor of mechanical engineering. They see (gasoline) prices going up and they know that it may be related to demand, but they have no idea that we could be approaching the worldwide peak.”
He said most people think oil will sooner or later run out, but they are confused about when that will happen.
(16 Feb 2007)
Nice article on peak oil from a student newspaper. -BA
