Running Out of Oil? History, Technology and Abundance

TCSDAILY ^ | 13 Mar 2006 | Max Schulz

[Wasanother]

I just saw a report the other day, can't remember where, that stated that we have hundreds of years of supply in the Gulf but it's too deep at this time to get it.

[neodad]

That's all great, but this time, we're really DOOOOMMMMMED!

[saganite]

Here's a related post I made from a few days ago. Technology is increasing the amount of energy we can extract and will continue to do so. Peak oil is a myth.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1600664/posts

[Rakkasan1]

not to worry, bird flu will kill us all!

[the invisib1e hand]

[the invisib1e hand]

...In The Doomsday Myth, Charles Maurice and Charles Smithson show that although doom merchants have been predicting imminent collapse from resource shortages as long as civilization has existed, no nation has ever fallen because of the depletion of a resource. They also show that government intervention has not been the solution to these crises. Instead, freely functioning markets with individuals acting in their own self-interest have eliminated shortages, and averted doomsday. The free market theme is the same one used by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations in 1776, but the need to restate it for new generations is urgent. The authors concluded that a resource-based doomsday will arrive only if we suspend the functioning of free markets.

[AndrewB]

Actually, were Domed.

[mysterio]

The headline contains the word "oil." That should be good for an additional 10 cents per gallon at the pump.

[RightWhale]

A Peak Easy Oil thread! Interesting that science will provide whatever we want.

[spanalot]

"not to worry, bird flu will kill us all!"

I thought we were all dead already from swine flu and alar and paraquat?

[William Terrell]

Today's drills don't stop at a couple hundred feet. They bore miles into the earth.

Would the plant and animal remains that it is said produces oil have migrated miles into the Earth? Is it likely?

[Strategerist]

It's marine plankton remains, mostly diatoms, to be precise.

And they don't "migrate" into the earth. They're deposited at the bottom of oceans and large lakes, and have sediments dumped on top of them over tens of millions of years. They're laid down and then stuff ends up on top of them.

[Rakkasan1]

as if you weren't already dead from global cooling and Y2K
shutdown of water facilities.

[FreePaul]

For a long time people thought that oil was formed only by organic material including diatoms. Recent theories indicate that at least some is formed of inorganic material because of the high temperature and high pressure several miles below the surface.

[Alberta's Child]

You can find fossils of sea shells at the tops of some 12,000-foot peaks in the Canadian Rockies, so I guess it's not out of the question.

[Thalos]

How do the authors of The Doomsday Myth account for societies such as Easter Island, the Maya, the Anasazi Indians, or the Greenland Norse? Each of those were wiped out or severely crippled by a depleted resource, either water, trees, or soil nutrients. I personally don't believe in Peak Oil; we keep inventing new ways of getting oil, new ways of using less of it, and new ways of replacing it (think nukes or Brazil's alcohol). However, I also don't believe the statement "no nation has ever fallen because of the depletion of a resource".

[the invisib1e hand]

idunno, but those don't sound like industrialized societies, dealing with commodities. Hard for me to imagine the Incas benefitting from market solutions to soil nutrient issues. all i can say is the book is a worthwhile read, and handily despatches what is apparently a perennial sacred cow.

why don't you track 'em down and ask them?

[Genesis defender]

Oil shortage? Don't worry, we have a back-up plan.

[MD_Willington_1976]

And on Crows nest pass (hwy 3) there is oil oozing out of the shale.. been there, seen that working on a seismic crew... There is still loads of oil in Canada...