Your excellent anonymous source writes that "awareness of Peak Oil has just begun debate within media
circles." True of the US - but `back home' in Europe, false consciousness still rules.

The most recent example: today's `Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung' - Germany's leading highbrow daily  - has a major (page 1) editorial entitled `The Price of Oil'. And who's ultimately to blame for the spike, apart from Hurricane Katrina? Well, it's the state-owned and private oil companies which "during the 80s and 90s invested too little in new production facilities and refineries." Of course.

Needless to say the editorialist goes on to assure us that "[t]he tense market has nothing to do with the finiteness of oil reserves. Despite growing consumption, proven oil reserves have also increased in recent years." ("Mit der Endlichkeit der Ölreserven hat die gepannte Marktlage nichts zu tun. Die nachgewiesenen Ölreserven sind auch in den vergangen Jahren trotz des wachsenden Verbrauchs gestiegen.")

My guess is that as peak oil begins to hit, the more `peaking mantras' of this broken-record variety we are likely to come across in the media.

We'll be back to the horse and cart and these guys will still be banging on about the growth in `proven reserves'. Jesus wept.