<Some reprieve in Jan VMT The Oil Drum Pregnancy revisited or some thoughts on coal>

186 comments on Responses to Salon & an open thread

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geo on March 29, 2006 - 2:28am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Ezra Klein is a smart young guy who writes mostly intelligent posts in the progressive vein.  Why does he suddenly go snotnose and dismissive on peak oil?  In the progressive camp myself, I'm disconcerted at how so many progressives are just not getting it, or worse, like Klein coming up with this defensive foolishness.  
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Prof. Goose on March 29, 2006 - 2:40am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
long ago, Ezra let me guest post over there on PO, so this is a relatively new position for him.

they don't want to be wrong, same as the media and the politicians, because they want to maintain their supposed cred.  

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step back on March 29, 2006 - 12:30pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
they don't want to be wrong [about PO], ... they want to maintain their supposed cred.

So ... better dead than a little less cred?

(And I thought these people knew how to multiply risk against potential gain (or more importantly, against potential loss of our entire way of life).)

Let's see:
a=Risk that PO is wrong= close to zero but still finite
b=Absolute value of loss of cred= close to zero but still finite
c=Absolute value of loss due to being unprepared for PO= Priceless

So according to the econo-heads:
a*b >> (1-a)*c

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AlphaMaleProphetOfDoom on March 29, 2006 - 11:36am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
First off, I've neve talked to Ezra and don't know him from Adam although I realized after looking over his blog that I had linked to several of his published pieces.

From the look and feel of his blog, he looks to me like the type of guy that might land a gig as a policy analyst in D.C. or something along those lines. He's a member of the pundit class, albeit an intelligent one. That archetype of person, be they a reactionary Bill Oreilly blowhard or a progressive with some integrity & intelligence, is as invested in "business as usual" as anybody. Thus acceptance of the logical implication sof Peak Oil (the ultimate non-business as usual scenario) is problematic.

The reationaries can always spin this in their favor quite easily saying something like, "This is why we need to take over the Mid east! You don't want those evil A-rabs to have all the oil, do you?!"

BEst,

Matt

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186 comments on Responses to Salon & an open thread

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