Is Global Warming a Hoax?
Out of context: Reply #40
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- ukit0
Here's the thing, sure you can debate global warming, just like you can debate evolution, gravity, the Earth being flat and all scientific theories. And people who don't actually know what they're talking about but who have a political view on it can find examples here and there and pretend they invalidate the entire thing, like the ones Fred posted above.
But what is not being debated is that the world will run out of oil eventually. The only question is how soon. Some people say we are currently living at the "peak" of the oil boom and that we could hit a supply crunch in just a few years. Even the most optimistic estimates are that there is only another 30 or 40 years supply. If you saw the movie "Collapse" you get kind of a dramatized version of how quickly the shit could hit the fan once this drop of oil supplies starts happening. Now granted, the guy in that movie isn't the ultimate authority on this but there are plenty of people with a lot on the line saying similar things:
"French supermajor Total S.A., announced plans in 2008 to shift their focus to nuclear energy instead of oil and gas. A Total senior vice president explained that this is because they believe oil production will peak before 2020, and they would like to diversify their position in the energy markets."
"The UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security (ITPOES) reported in late October 2008 that peak oil is likely to occur by 2013. Their report includes a chapter written by Shell corporation."
"In 2005, the United States Department of Energy published a report titled Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, & Risk Management. Known as the Hirsch report, it stated, "The peaking of world oil production presents the U.S. and the world with an unprecedented risk management problem. As peaking is approached, liquid fuel prices and price volatility will increase dramatically, and, without timely mitigation, the economic, social, and political costs will be unprecedented. Viable mitigation options exist on both the supply and demand sides, but to have substantial impact, they must be initiated more than a decade in advance of peaking."
And just today, here's an article published in Forbes on this:
http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/11…
At some point arguing whether Al Gore photoshopped his Powerpoint slides is making you look fairly retarded in the face of warnings from these kind of folks about oil supplies grinding to a halt. The answer to both problems is the same, which is that the world needs to make the difficult transition to new energy sources, and it will need to occur within our lifetimes.