As I've mentioned before, the mainstream media has discovered peak oil with a vengeance. Last week, it was on the cover of USA Today. Today, I discovered that Time has jumped on board with a brief debate of the subject between geologist and peak oil guru Kenneth Deffeyes (Beyond Oil) and Peter Huber, peak oil naysayer and co-author of The Bottomless Well. (affiliate links) This debate highlights one of the most interesting elements of this debate: each side tends to address the issue from a very different perspective. While Deffeyes' argument addresses politics and economics, geology is the cornerstone of his thesis. Huber, and other critics of peak oil, tend to rely on economics, politics and technology to support their position. Of course, with oil and natural gas prices at the forefront of everyone's minds, the peak oil crowd certainly would seem to have a willing audience for its position. From a personal (and non-scientific) perspective, peak oil resonates at the gut level as well as the logical -- something that's not being constantly renewed has to run out...
Categories: peak oil, debate, Time
