November 25, 2010

Wonderful rant on the "peak energy" Malthusian spew

Peak this and peak that. OMG we are all gonna die. Bullshit... There is a class of irrational thought that originated with the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus and it considers that certain resources are finite in their scope and once we reach a "tipping point" in their consumption, that resource will become so expensive as to be unavailable to the general population. This thought is called Malthusian and has yet to be demonstrated. The people who promote Malthusian concepts have a very limited view of this planet and generally they expound on subjects that they have not the slightest knowledge, only a few talking points which they heard from someone else -- a case of false authority syndrome. James Delingpole takes aim at one popular Malthusian trope -- the idea of Peak Energy:
Peak energy? What peak energy?
One of the other lies told by Watermelons � when they�re not bleating about the fast-fading �crisis� of �Man-Made Global Warming� � is that the earth is fast running out of scarce resources. �Even if AGW isn�t quite as true as we pretended it was a few years ago, that�s still no excuse for not taking radical action to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,� they claim.

Isn�t it?

The Global Warming Policy Foundation (Happy anniversary, GWPF!) has collated several pieces which offer a helpful counter to this hackneyed, and too often unquestioned, eco-fascist narrative.

Here�s the New York Times: (And would Pravda lie to you about a story so very much counter to its preferred ecotard narrative?)
Just as it seemed that the world was running on fumes, giant oil fields were discovered off the coasts of Brazil and Africa, and Canadian oil sands projects expanded so fast, they now provide North America with more oil than Saudi Arabia. In addition, the United States has increased domestic oil production for the first time in a generation.

Meanwhile, another wave of natural gas drilling has taken off in shale rock fields across the United States, and more shale gas drilling is just beginning in Europe and Asia. Add to that an increase in liquefied natural gas export terminals around the world that connected gas, which once had to be flared off, to the world market, and gas prices have plummeted.

Energy experts now predict decades of residential and commercial power at reasonable prices. Simply put, the world of energy has once again been turned upside down.
Here�s CBS on the vast reserves of natural gas now being extracted from shale:
�In the last few years, we�ve discovered the equivalent of two Saudi Arabias of oil in the form of natural gas in the United States. Not one, but two,� Aubrey McClendon, the CEO of Chesapeake Energy, told �60 Minutes� correspondent Lesley Stahl.

�Wait, we have twice as much natural gas in this country, is that what you�re saying, than they have oil in Saudi Arabia?� Stahl asked. �I�m trying to very clearly say exactly that,� he replied.
Does any of this sound to you like evidence that the world is facing the kind of energy crisis which can only be solved by concerted government intervention?

Me neither. One of my many beefs with the green movement is its wilful economic illiteracy. I say �wilful� because I can see no other explanation � except, possibly, arrant stupidity � for the way it so determinedly avoids all the lessons of history which show how infinitely adaptable man is and always has been in the face of �scarce resources.�

Man did not stop building wooden ships because of a shortage of trees. He stopped because he had developed the technology to build ships made of steel instead.
There are over 1,070 comments so James definitely struck a nerve. Spot on... Posted by DaveH at November 25, 2010 5:27 PM
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