How long until PO goes mainstream?

ROCKMAN

The comments have reminded me of an incident over 30 years ago. During the late 70's oil price spike we were eating lunch in a bar across the street form our offices at Mobil Oil. An old bar fly was going on and on about the damn oil companies. One of our guys (whose real and well deserved nickname was "Mad Dog") got up to take issue with the fellow. But then the guy said "we don't need anymore damn oil wells....what we need are more gasoline wells". That got Mad Dog laughing so much he just sat down and finished his sandwich.

It so easy to pick on the general lack of education of the US public that we really shouldn't. But it will always be a factor to some degree. And that impact will be proportional to the efforts of politicians trying to pander to the masses. There just seems to be some rules in US politics these days that just won't be repealed and following the lead of the majority appears to be one of them.

cube · Fusion Joined: Mar 12, 2005 Posts: 3823

s0ul5 · Tar Sands Joined: May 07, 2008 Posts: 36 Location: Finland

mos6507

gregg1961 · Tar Sands Joined: Aug 15, 2006 Posts: 20

To me the general public seems to act like the frog in a kettle when it comes to the most publicized aspects of oil, namely fuel prices. The water isn't that hot yet, but the heat is on. The frog will just keep sitting there until the water boils at which time it is too late. What will really heat this water, IMHO, will be food shortages. Yes, food prices will probably keep creeping up, but when production actually drops because the costs to produce and transport food to distant markets is when the water will boil our hapless little frog.

I still think the way around this is to set the cost of a barrel of oil at exactly 10% of the cost of a bushel of wheat. But I'm not running for office... Twisted Evil

kam3Oen · Heavy Crude Joined: Sep 09, 2007 Posts: 119

The big problem with "believing in" peak oil is that with peak oil, there's really no hope, sort of like when a 90 year old man checks into the hospital with chest pains. Sure, he might live another year, maybe even 5, but what is certain is that his best days are long behind him. This is peak oil, and is it really surprising that it's hard to convince people who've grown up believing that they are entitled to live better than 19th century noblemen, that they will soon be either dead or pushing a plow. This is also the reason most people believe in god, to deny the inevitability of death, and the pointlessness of life.