I recently watched the documentaries “Denial Stops Here” and “The End of Suburbia” on the topic of peak oil, and its implications. The basic theory is that global oil production levels will soon reach, if they haven’t already, the highest point that they ever will. Michael Ruppert and Matt Savinar note the extent to which petroleum is used in the U.S. economy ( fuel, steel, construction, fertilizer, plastics, clothing, computers, electricity ) and predict that shortly after the peak, the U.S. economy will collapse into a lasting depression orders of magnitute worse than the great depression, large scale global military conflict, and widespread starvation and civil unrest. I’m not a political scientist, geologist, or economist, but I want to know how credible this scenario is, so immediately I thought of Cecil and the teeming millions.
Impossible to say, since it’s a prediction. Ask again in 5 years time.
Two points to note though:
The WEO, WEC, USGS and every other major energy research organisation in the world disagree with it based on solid science.
The depletion of oil within 15 years has been predicted constantly for the past 90 years. These claims have always been made based on what their supporters said was the best science of the day. This is not a new scare, it’s one that is recycled endlessly. I don’t even have to ask your age to know that your parents read exactly the same dire warnings and unless you are very old so did your grand parents and possibly your great grandparents.
No. Quite simply those predictions are nonsense and ignore so many facts that it’s laughable. See the threads shagnasty linked to for a comprehensive debunking. If an oil peak hits within the next 20 years, which is far from certain, then it will likely lead to a recession and inflation, not an economic collapse.
If there are any specific claims that you still feel have any credibility after reading that lot then get back to us.
Thanks for the URLs. Sorry for the previously addressed questions, but I did try some due dilligence first, unfortunately the search facilities on this site are less than fantastic.