Another breathless piece telling us that we’re all doomed, doomed I tell you!
Two things worth noting. All these calculations about peak oil seem to me (of course, I’m willing to be corrected here) to miss something important about the geology of the whole process. We don’t actually get all of the oil out of a reservoir. At present I think it’s somewhere in the 25% to 30% level. That’s up from 10% of so a few decades ago. So all the talk about us finding or not finding new reservoirs is a little off subject. There’s a great deal more oil out there which we already know about than there is oil which we can currently extract. And we can increase the usable amount simply (perhaps not le mot juste) by continuing to improve oour extraction technology. As we have been and presumably will continue to do.
The second thing is well put by this commenter:
Goody. $100 is just what we need to change consumption habits. I hope it goes higher.
As consumption habits change, and industry production costs rise, innovation will follow (more efficient transport, alternative energy) and government will limp along behind us, as is its curse in a consumer society.
Quite. Even if the peak oil crowd are correct, what is happening, the rise in prices, is exactly what we require to cure the probloem. Excellent the way that markets work, ain’t it?
November 24, 2007 3:53 AM