Britain's leading green commentator, George Monbiot, tackles the International Energy Authority's chief economist, who reveals for the first time a startling and worrying prediction for the date of peak oil.
An informative interview, but I find Monbiot's insistence on playing "gotcha" with a generally compliant Birol to be irrelevant, petty, and annoying.
Kurtilein3 2008-12-19
Watching this almost makes me angry, or at least it makes me feel sad for the american people. It is a mathematical fact that peak oil will happen because of exponential growth in consumption, i will try to add an external video that explains this as a related video. Some people believe that peak oil has already happened in 2006, we will have to wait to see if it is true but so far the 2006 peak is the all-time maximum in oil production. this already caused a food crisis which the developing world currently experiences, just search wikipedia for "2007–2008 world food price crisis". Media around the world has been reporting about this for years, peak oil will happen surely before 2015 if not much earlier, and other nations are very actively trying to get repared. American corporate media just doesnt talk about this. Time to prepare was yesterday, and this important information should influence decisions about GM and the other car companies. People should at least keep this in mind, an
axel 2008-12-19
Strange. Neither George Monbiot nor Fatih Birol seem to be willing to connect the dots between climate energy. If we let the oil supply regulate our oil consumption and wait until the supply peak before reducing consumption, the climate is doomed.
Peak oil is irrelevant.
Herodotus 2008-12-19
This clip mentioned the Middle East might Peak by 2020. Depending on the exact production curves of the Middle East and the Rest of World, they could combine for a much earlier Global Peak Oil date. I've heard estimates of 2012 to 2015.
Yossarian_22 2008-12-19
I would caution any naysayers of Peak Oil to go look at the mountains of real evidence that is stacking up every day, corroborating the affirmation of the decline of oil production. It's NOT an elitist story cooked up for price gains. That will happen as a matter of course. The fact is that for every 4 barrels of oil used, 1 is discovered. Go learn about it and then decide for yourself. I personally discussed this with many people who should know and they conformed it. I even asked Noam Chomsky what he thought and he knows it's real too. It scares the crap out of him because Cheney said that the " American way of life will not be negotiated." That's why we invaded the Middle East. It's not just about control of oil to consume, it's about controlling who gets it and the price. If we use nuclear blackmail to keep control of it, we will. That's what scares Chomsky. Ask him yourself.
rmwilliams 2008-12-18
i am loving the interviews this guy gives
aloholoh 2008-12-18
oh come on - please give us something more intelligent than this tripe!!! so we are going to run out of oil - no kidding - what are we doing to find a new energy source?? what are we doing to survive the energy crisis that is going to follow the econimic disaster unfolding??
DJ2008 2008-12-18
"Peak Oil", like the Global Warming/Climate Change mass-media machine alongside it, is a shrewd fraud designed to try and affect rising Chinese/Indian energy demands, along with longterm population control objectives. The IEA is thus a lacky paid by elites to put forth party bylines and affect markets in a corrupted, US dollar-based racket for controlling energy pricing and trading.
Nancyf 2008-12-18
Free-trade will kill us if we don't kill it first. There is only room for FAIR trade when it comes to foreign concerns. This is positively oilwellian.
sonobono 2008-12-18
Monbiot is belaboring a moot point; if he wants to know about peak oil and future pricing, he should be talking to speculators like T Boone Pickens and others who would like to see it peak and sustain at $200/barrel.
mvance43 2008-12-18
Your story highlights the need for a critical look at the "Peak Oil" concept. In North Dakota, we have the Bakken Play, a large reserve we knew about in the 50's but couldn't reach for want of technology.
We have also seen oil fields become productive again due to secondary and tertiary recovery technologies. We need a broader view of competitive theories on "peak oil."
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