Saturday, November 05, 2005

Answers on Abiotic Oil

Several people (mostly not sustainablog readers) have passed along items promoting the "abiotic oil" theory, described in this book description from WorldNutDaily:
...oil is not a product of fossils and prehistoric forests but rather the bio-product of a continuing biochemical reaction below the earth's surface that is brought to attainable depths by the centrifugal forces of the earth's rotation.
As I'm not a geologist, I was in no position to debate this nonsense, so I'm happy to see that The Oil Drum has posted evidence demonstrating that abiotic oil is bogus. Apparently, proponents of the theory (including Jerome Corsi, a big player behind Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) like to point to Vietnam's White Tiger and Black Lion oil fields as evidence. Writer Dave offers evidence that the "geologic context" of these fields explains the presence of oil, not some whack-job alternative theory...

Sorry to sound a little cranky here, but I find myself getting touchier about the right-wing "science" machine... These folks are doing a service to no one (not even, as a commenter at TOD points out, the big oil companies...). Scratch that -- I suppose they are serving businesses that promote/rely on thoughtless consumption... go ahead and buy another Hummer... nothing to worry about here...

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