Wednesday, May 05, 2010

I NEVER THOUGHT...

May 5, 2010 -- ... I would live to see the day when something like this aired on CNBC. Peak Oil has gone mainstream. The cat's out of the bag... and hungry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiNBCyiB0XA
MCR

34 comments:

Unknown said...

Mike, You're absolutely amazing. Like those ayurvedic doctors who can put three fingers on your pulse and know what's wrong with you, you, too, feel the pulse and are able to cut to the quick. Triage. No wasting time on pointless drivel...you are to the point. Amazing.

OregonSurvivor said...

I hadn't read the Hirsch report mentioned in the video, at least not lately. Here it is for those who wish to have access to it:
Hirsch Report

TheProfessor said...

Unfortunately, they're only airing opinions and interviews. If they were to do a special report on oil depletion, I'd consider that a real victory.

But this is an important first step, I think. We keep hearing about it more and more, and the more people that keep hearing 'peak oil', 'peak oil', will inevitably Google it, and hopefully find this blog (and CollapseNet).

Unknown said...

Yes, crunch time has arrived for peak oil. All those Sh.ti.g th..se..ves about this huge historical change will nevertheless have to face up to it as best they can. Altered comment is not meant to be rude or cruel but rather we are immensely fearful of change on a massive scale including me!

Unknown said...

Is it possible that NBC puts this stuff on the air so GE can boost their wind turbine sales?

Unknown said...

[Hi Jacob above, could you please use a different nickname on this blog? Thank you.]

v said...

Are we seeing the end of capitalism?
Professor David Harvey on the need to think of alternatives to capitalism as endless growth is no longer a possibility.

UK budget deficit 'to surpass Greece's as worst in EU'

Trichet May Rewrite ECB Rule Book to Tame Greek Risk

Bin Laden living in lap of luxury in Iran?
Al-Qaeda chief residing in comfortable complex with family, practicing falconry, documentary says


GrTz,

V

Kieran UK said...

Certainly hitting mainstream Mike.

A regular contributor on BBC News, David Buick from BCG Partners here in the UK, was being interviewed regarding the UK Election and said (and I paraphrase):

"No party is debating the real issues which are oil; with the potential to cause huge disruption within the near future, water which is going to be a serious problem wiithin a few decades and of course sovereign debt, which still remains the elephant in the room".

David is usually quite bullish and gets frustrated by "doomsayers", so to hear him say these things is quite a turning point. Of course the BBC journalist had not a clue what he was talking about and swiftly moved on.

I'm wondering if Branson's group The Peak Oil Task Force http://peakoiltaskforce.net/ has had some serious influence on the City and we will see a shift away from energy stocks in particular this year, compounded of course by BP and the realization of just how volatile they could be.

Finally, although not newly created, but certainly not publicised, we have an official government group that's engaging PO. http://www.appgopo.org.uk/

Perhaps, despite the politicians ignoring the issue is even more concerning because they understand there is no answer, so it's best not to discuss it.

gamedog said...

Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions

Congressional Hypocrites Were Betting Against Stocks As Country Collapsed
You have to wonder if anyone is actually trying to prevent collapse at all!

New Colonialism: Pentagon Carves Africa Into Military Zones

Greeks begin two-day strike as banking system is saved from meltdown

US school for disabled forces students to wear packs that deliver massive electric shocks

Whoops! CO2 has almost nothing to do with global warming, discovers top US meteorologist

Tax chat could land you a £5,000 fine: Big Brother law threatens innocent advice

Covert Economic Agenda Beneath Immigration Reform

Radical tax on debt put to parties

Households should pay a new tax on every pound of debt they owe, according to one of Britain's leading economists. "You would charge households 1pc on the outstanding debt," he said, "perhaps just imposing it on unsecured debt [such as credit cards and overdrafts] at first."

GMO alert: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling

Preparedness goes mainstream: "Preppers" come from all walks of life (and they all want to stay alive)

Britain's Election: Welcome to No Choice Democracy

North 'deploys' troops on Koreas border

Blimey, thick n fast today, struggling to keep up with events here!

Anonymous said...

Thanks to Michael and others, this is something we knew was coming for some time now. But, will we be discussing or addressing what we, as individuals or communities, can do to avert or at the very least, utilize as alternatives? ie- solar panels, windmills, etc.

Unknown said...

hmmm du déjà vu... Always remember folks, you heard it first from Mike Ruppert!! ;)

Margaret said...

I did my Master's Thesis on How Bioregionalism Can Help Build Resiliency in Response to Peak Oil and Climate Change. Whenever I see things in the media like this interview on CNBC, I'm always amazed that the experts "opinions" are right in line with FACTS.

Also, I'm glad I chose that topic for my thesis. Sounds like it's going to help me more than anything else in the next decade. Now if I can just get a sweet price on that 2 acres of land I'm eyeballing in Ridgway, Colorado...

Frank Galati said...

Thanks to Michael and others, we've known this was coming for some time now. But will we be discussing what we as individuals or communities can do to avert or at the very least use to substitute with such as solar panels, windmills, etc.

Sebastian Ernst Ronin said...

It will be ugly. Time to pull up Bill Shakespeare:

Blood and destruction shall be so in use
And dreadful objects so familiar
That mothers shall but smile when they behold
Their infants quarter'd with the hands of war;
All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
And Caesar's spirit, ranging for revenge,
With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial.


"With carrion men, groaning for burial." Now there's a line for the age. Reform is a non-starter.

Bryan said...

Page last updated at 12:41 GMT, Thursday, 6 May 2010 13:41 UK

"One of the oil and gas companies currently drilling off the coast of the Falkland Islands says it may have struck oil.

Rockhopper Exploration said that initial data collected from one well "indicated an oil discovery".

The find would be the first in North Falkland Basin, the area north of the islands currently being explored."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10100769.stm

http://www.rockhopperexploration.co.uk/

Weaseldog said...

In GameDog's link on CO2, "One type of positive feedback often cited by alarmists is cloud cover. When CO2 causes the world to warm, they argue, it reduces the number of clouds. Clouds are what help protect our planet from the burning heat of the sun, by reflecting solar radiation."

That is a vast oversimplification of only one component of the theory. I could make a similar stupid argument.

'The theory that dogs can run fast, rest on the assumption that they have long legs. In fact, some dogs have short legs and are unable to outrun a modern automobile. This proves that dogs cannot run fast.'

Thanks to political agendas on both sides of the issue, real science is lost. It's now an argument over opinions and poorly constructed logical arguments.

In the end it doesn't matter. If warming has a strong anthropocentric component, we've already gone so far that any changes we make today won't have a measurable effect in our lifetimes. and of course, each generation only cares about itself, not future generations.

If anthropocentric warming could be proved scientifically without room for debate, we'd still do nothing.

But it can't be proven. In science you must run an experiment over and over with a control set to validate a theory. We don't have hundreds of Earths to run the experiment on. We're running the experiment with the only one we have. And that isn't very scientific.

pstajk said...

Mike ... Congratulations

Robs said...

Did somebody say prevent Collapse?
You are kidding right?
The possibility of preventing Collapse probably ended around the time Reagan became president...

I think somebody is in the bargaining-phase.

peakoildude said...

The news was this money manager put 30% of his client's money into the energy trade. He talks fundamentals, but when the giant pool of money chasing returns moves back into this space, the price will not be based on any sort of demand number.
It's like this guy was repeating a Ruppert speech. Even quoting the Hirsch report. No doubt he got most of his research leads from Mike.

gamedog said...

Weaseldog, of course it's an over simplification, it's a blog report on a whole book, you even managed to miss the crux of it, with an irrelevant analogy, the crux being...

"The mistake they have made is to confuse cause with effect. It’s not man-made global warming that is causing cloud cover to grow thinner, leading to a spiral of ever-rising temperatures. Rather, it’s natural variations in cloud cover that are helping to cause global warming."

It's a chicken and egg situation, to decide which causes which you need to look at the historical Co2 data where it should become obvious to the peak aware, especially when viewed in context of the political agenda

Sensenbrenner Report Challenges EPA Greenhouse Finding

Weaseldog said...

GameDog, the climate is too complex to ascribe a one variable leads to one effect sort of argument.

In that logic, he's arguing that natural variability effects cloud cover, so there cannot be any other contributing factors.

You're making the same logical mistake.

When in fact in system as complex as climate, the interplay of many factors matters.

The idea that climatologists ignore natural variability when modeling the Earth's climate, is ludicrous.

I do hear people who can't even spell CO2 argue that they don't. But that doesn't make it so.

Weaseldog said...

Gamedog said, "especially when viewed in context of the political agenda"

Yeah, and that's how science works Eh?

In understanding combustion reactions in an ICE, you need to view in the context of the political agenda?

I can see why people think that way. They might ask, "Why does frozen water remain at 32f when applying heat for a time, before undergoing a phase change?" And the answer might be... "Oh you've been listening to Al Gore again."

gamedog said...

well mate, as much as you think it does, science doesn't work by changing the subject and injecting dodgy analogies either.

You like your dog analogy eh, by your reckoning you walk past the dog house, the dog dies, therefore you killed the dog.

Temps rise, CO2 rises, therefore CO2 caused temps to rise.

Poppycock.

Niels Bohr disproved the "CO2 greenhouse theory" 100 years ago!

If you want to research the causes of natural climate variation you might read the papers referenced in this article

gamedog said...

"The idea that climatologists ignore natural variability when modeling the Earth's climate, is ludicrous."

While were highlighting spelling.. "modelling" is just that. A model, i.e. a theory, a hypothesis, not real, unproven speculation.

Unknown said...

Reading the comments to this one, I'm surprised that nobody's picked up the obvious bullshit.

Prue says he's optimistic that after 10 or more years, we'll be all right because we'll be driving smaller cars and most of them will be electric. What will they build the cars out of, and where will they get the stuff, and who will be able to pay for all the labor and energy required to create those cars, batteries and roads required to keep "our way of life" going, even "Our Way of Life Lite"?

This is the old "Science will think of something" saw. I wonder if he really believes it, or whether it's his professional line of disinformation, while his company sucks up the last of the goodies? At least he is clear and concise on Peak Oil. Makes me think he knows more than he lets his audience in on.

Weaseldog said...

Gamedog, thank you for switching the topic to spelling.

'Modelling' and 'Modeling' are both valid spellings. I see the version 'Modeling' appear more frequently in the technical books and articles i read.

"modelling" is just that. A model, i.e. a theory, a hypothesis, not real, unproven speculation.

A hypothesis and theory are not identical.

In science, nothing is a fact. A theory is a hypothesis that has been demonstrated well enough to be considered the best explanation.

Nothing in science is 'proven' in the same sense that you can 'prove' things in logic or mathematics.

The Theory of Gravity is just a 'theory' or a 'hypothesis', depending on how much trust you wish to put into it. The effects we experience, that we call 'gravity' are merely observations.

The idea that vaporized gasoline and oxygen combust in an engine, is not a fact, but just a theory. It's the best explanation so far, in explaining our observations.

The idea that 'Global Warming' is just a 'Theory' and thus is unproven, is certainly a 'fact'. But to go an assume that this means that it is false, is an error in one's understanding of science. It's something that people ignorant of how science works, go around repeating.

When you hear people repeat such nonsense, it's a very good indicator that they are poorly educated in science.

businessman said...

The process of bringing Peak Oil mainstream is a double-edged sword. Yes, many of us would like to enlighten the world on this, but at the same time, if the world really got what was going on, there would be mass chaos. Can you imagine if the entire world, or the entire nation that each of us now individually lives in...really got what was going on? I mean...the collapse of modern civilization, economic poverty for the masses, and two thirds of the people on the planet dying?

This doesn't mean that we're not going to have mass chaos anyway...but do we want to have mass chaos sooner, or later?

I'm guessing that the propaganda machines will continue feeding us hope while everything's falling apart, not really admitting to us what's really going on.

And as much as I'm not excited about the propaganda machines, keeping people with some sense of hope for a better future will at least minimize some of the total mass chaos for awhile.

Remember...when it comes to dealing with the masses combined with them being in a total state of panic, we're talking about people who will both trample and kill others in order to protect themselves.

Unknown said...

Now instead of having 1,000 idiotic americans knowing about this while at the same time perpetuating the status-quo you will have 1,000000 doing absolutely nothing other than posting love notes to MCR,"Mike, You're absolutely amazing. Like those ayurvedic doctors", as shrewd as he is that is like comparing coca-cola with green tea. I wonder if there was ever been a nation so thoroughly impregnated by ignorance as the septic pool you call your country. time by pink floyd

TheProfessor said...

I wonder if this was a glitch, or if someone sold a lot of shares:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/proctergamble-not-clear-why-share-price-plunged-2010-05-06?siteid=yhoof2

Margaret said...

Mario, what do you know about what we're doing and not doing to perpetuate the status quo? You have zero idea of what kind of life I lead. Get a clue.

At least I'm not trolling websites looking to insult people who are trying to do something positive and helpful with their lives.

gamedog said...

I'd like to wager the coming NH winter will be more severe than 09/10 care to take the wager?

"I do hear people who can't even spell CO2 argue that they don't. But that doesn't make it so."

"Gamedog, thank you for switching the topic to spelling."

whatever, your circular arguments are going nowhere, have a nice day.

Weaseldog said...

"whatever, your circular arguments are going nowhere, have a nice day."

It's Ok, not everyone is a science geek. Most Americans don't understand the basics of the scientific method. Our education system isn't what it used to be. Since the creationists started taking over, our public schools have pushed science and math into the back seat, behind sports and cheerleading.

You have a nice day too.

Elmo said...

This foul deed. Thank you for that, Sebasian.

Elmo said...

@businessman

"Yes, many of us would like to enlighten the world on this, but at the same time, if the world really got what was going on, there would be mass chaos."

:-)