I will believe the Saudis don't see any upcoming problems with Ghawar when they cancel one of their projects due to low oil prices. If they continue to be full steam ahead with increasing their capacity then I think they are aware that Ghawar may not be as robust in 5 years time as they would like us to believe.
Joined: Mar 04, 2005 Posts: 2729 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 8:41 pm Post subject: Jimmy Carter -- the peak oil president
Jimmy Carter -- the peak oil president
Quote:
The timing is extraordinarily appropriate, and not just because energy is the campaign issue of the week. The wave of Republican mockery currently assaulting Barack Obama's recommendation that Americans properly inflate their tires flows squarely within the tradition of scorn and derision that conservatives have heaped on Carter for decades -- in part because of his call for conservation and sacrifice in 1977.
But the speech holds up pretty darn well today, even as right-wing flailing increasingly manifests itself, to borrow a slam made by Obama against his critics on Tuesday, as risibly "ignorant." I particularly liked the following passage, if only because of its prescience.
The Rush Limbaugh wing of the Republican Party, happily smacking their lips as they've chowed down on Jimmy Carter's legacy for almost three decades, would have us believe that the threats of climate change and peak oil do not exist. To which point, again, one can think of no better response than Barack Obama's.
"I don't understand it ... It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant."
salon. _________________ Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells.
Fatih Birol's motto: leave oil before it leaves us.
Joined: Aug 03, 2007 Posts: 4376 Location: Boston Suburbs
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 9:15 pm Post subject: Re: Jimmy Carter -- the peak oil president
Jimmy was not a peak oil president. He jumped the gun and framed the debate in terms of oil "running out" in 1977. It wasn't. Only domestic oil was. North Sea was yet to hit the scene. We should have still listened to him, but only in retrospect does he look like a genius. In the 90s that speech looked like a joke.
If you want a real peak oil speech from an elected official, watch one of Roscoe Bartlett's many presentations. _________________ As long as I am around, there are no worries we have reached "Peak Words"
The world has not prepared for the future. During the 1950s, people used twice as much oil as during the 1940s. During the 1960s, we used twice as much as during the 1950s. And in each of those decades, more oil was consumed than in all of mankind's previous history.
World consumption of oil is still going up. If it were possible to keep it rising during the 1970s and 1980s by 5 percent a year as it has in the past, we could use up all the proven reserves of oil in the entire world by the end of the next decade.
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 8:34 am Post subject: Re: Jimmy Carter -- the peak oil president
...and here's why future historians are likely to be far kinder to Carter than all subsequent US presidents...
Quote:
We are grossly wasting our energy resources … as though their supply was infinite. We must even face the prospect of changing our basic ways of living. This change will either be made on our own initiative in a planned and rational way, or forced on us with chaos and suffering by the inexorable laws of nature.
— Jimmy Carter's Address for the 1976 Democratic Presidential Nomination, December 12, 1976
......Indeed, Jimmy Carter has been the only president in the past 30 years who tryed to convince us that we must begin changing "our basic ways of living" - preferrably before Mother Nature forces us to change via "chaos and suffering..."
In contrast, and despite the rightwing proclamations to the contrary about Carter and Bush, here's why historians will likely be extreme harsh on the presidency of G.W. Bush....
Quote:
We need an energy bill that encourages consumption.
— President George W. Bush, speech in Trenton, New Jersey, September 23, 2002
In essence, Dick Cheney famously stated that the "American way of life is not negotiable"- whereas Carter tried to tell us that the "American way of life" is not only negotiable, but is is actually unsustainable.
Anyhow, assuming he is elected, Barak Obama will likely have to repeat Carter's earlier message in a State of the Union speech circa 2010 or 2011, but this time we won't have 30 years to prepare for these massive changes "on our own initiative in a planned and rational way," as we are already witnessing in the global production and price of oil over the past 3 years, these changes will by 2010-2011 be "forced on us with chaos and suffering by the inexorable laws of nature."
Bottomline: I do not envy the arduous and painful journey that awaits the next US president (or any major political leader for that matter)
Joined: Jun 30, 2005 Posts: 743 Location: northern California
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 9:07 am Post subject: Re: Jimmy Carter -- the peak oil president
Petrodollar wrote:
Bottomline: I do not envy the arduous and painful journey that awaits the next US president (or any major political leader for that matter)
I do not envy the arduous and painful journey that awaits homo sapiens... _________________ "When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon."
Thomas Paine
Joined: Apr 09, 2007 Posts: 6270 Location: Alaska (its much bigger than Texas).
Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 8:31 pm Post subject: Re: Jimmy Carter -- the peak oil president
Petrodollar wrote:
Carter ...
Iran was the best friend the US had in the middle east prior to Jimmy Carter's bungling.
When the historians ask "who lost Iran" the answer will be Jimmy Carter. _________________ "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell
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