Are the Peak-Oil-Pessimists right, that this is just a minor blip?
What will it take for us to realise that the doom-mongers and peak-oil theorists are wrong, and that we live in an era of energy abundance?
Also up there is the fallout from a global economic collapse, possibly resulting from a state of peak oil -- the point where oil production reaches its peak and thereafter goes into freefall.
My guess is perhaps about 0.1% of the people in the world understand what tends to happen in post-peak oil exporting countries.
Over the last two years, as prices have soared, proponents of the Peak Oil theory--which argues that we will soon pass the point of being able to replace reserves as fast as they are consumed--have resurfaced in force.
For all you Peak Oil enthusiasts out there, check out this alarmist op-ed by Jeremy Leggett (The Next Crisis: Peak Oil) on the Forbes.com opinion channel.
Put us on the path to the right kind of "peak oil" -- and peak carbon -- the peak that comes, not because we find less and less, but because we want less and less.
So wrote the CEOs and Chairmen of the companies involved in the U.K. Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy--Richard Branson of Virgin, Ian Marchant of Scottish and Southern, Brain Souter of Stagecoach, Phillip Dilley of Arup and I--in the forward of our second annual report, released on Feb. 10.
The 2009 Wicks Review of U.K. energy security allocated just over one page to peak oil in a 119-page document.
The hiatus in air travel could be a rehearsal for a post-jet age if the peak oil theory is correct and we are facing a future with insufficient fuel to put into planes.
From its peak in the mid-1970s, the ratio of oil revenue to population moved against Venezuela, partly because migrants flooded in from poorer neighbouring countries.
Pay growth has so far remained subdued and commodity price pressures have eased, with oil prices down substantially from their mid-summer peak.
Peak oil may already be with us, and peak coal in 10-15 years, while peak lithium remains a subject of speculation.
Crude oil prices are down 23% since their late-February peak.
Senior government officials had told taskforce members that they saw no risk of premature peak oil, and declined the invitation of the companies to convene a government-plus-industry taskforce.
While gold and silver are close to their peaks, it is true that crude oil is still selling at a 30-40% discount from its peak in 2008.
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That is partly because annual oil-price inflation is running at 17%, compared with 100% at its peak in 2008.
Once the world's sixth-biggest producer of oil and gas, Britain has seen production drop by around 40% since its peak of 4.5m barrels a day in 1999.
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