Archive for November 10th, 2009

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise: Whistleblower says IEA Lied About How Much Oil is Left

Sharon November 10th, 2009

#node/50659

You’ll all want to see this - it seems like the mainstream media is picking it up.  It turns out that an IEA whistleblower is alleging that the IEA, succumbing to US government pressure, has been understating the seriousness of our energy situation.  And if you don’t follow the IEA, you probably don’t realize how extreme a statement that is - late last year the IEA announced that was predicting extremely high decline rates, of above 6% going into the coming decades.  They claimed this stemmed not from peak oil, but from insufficient investment, but the numbers they cited were at least as dramatic as the most extreme peak oil advocates in many cases.  So you want to pay attention when people say that the IEA has dramatically understated the concern. 

Perhaps more importantly, these allegations, if true, will confirm what independent Petroleum Geologists have been saying for years now - that we simply can’t trust national interests to honestly state our oil reserves.  Basically, we have no idea how much oil we have left - except that it is almost certainly less than we imagined.

Sharon

Keeping Up Appearances

Sharon November 10th, 2009

With U3 unemployment at 10.2 and U6 at above 17%, I think that claims that the worst is over are insanely premature.  But depending on where you live and how you live, it may be hard to see.  I think particularly among affluent communities, there’s a tendency to conceal the strain of the economy - leaving everyone to feel as though it is just them.

Yes, I know the problems of the rich are pale in comparison to the poor, but what I think is enlightening about this is the degree that even those who seem most insulated are involved, and unable to fully hide.  Yes, some of them are self-centered and greedy, and apparently too dim to grasp that when you run out of money, you should give up your gym and expensive haircuts and upper east side apartment, rather than taking out loans for an MA.  But then, that’s something we’ve encouraged over the years - the rich aren’t brighter than average, just richer.  And the very fact that the things that have worked for so long no longer do is worth looking at.

As a society, we’re keeping up appearances hard - we’re keeping up the mythos that things aren’t that bad, keeping up the idea that we can go back to what it was.  Here is a fascinating look under one layer of the appearances.

It is definitely worth a watch:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/closetohome/view/?utm_campaign=homepage&utm_medium=proglist&utm_source=proglist