I'm not a regular commenter here, mainly because while I'm a big fish in a small pond energy-wise in my own life, at TOD...wow...I'm utterly totally outranked.

But here I can make a bona fide comment.

Just as TOD is two years into this thing, I'm almost exactly two years into discovering the Big P.O. and having my entire worldview turned upside down upon that discovery.

I flip and turn and read and read and read. I have felt powerless and empowered at turns. Have felt optimistic at certain things I read here...and then have days when I want to rip out my thinning hair and think the world is headed down the drain. It is an enormous struggle for me, and really it should be for anybody, anyone with a critical mind.

All I can say is...The Oil Drum approaches this subject in the most rational, intelligent, factual way I have seen on this subject. At its core, this is NOT a doomer site, as Leanan said.

Now...if nothing is done about the subjects talked about here? Well...this COULD in retrospect BE a doomer site, but TOD writers do not and should not resign themselves to that, even as they do honest journalism and acknowledge that possibility as one possible outcome.

I think the crux of why this is such a valuable site is that you have energy experts with degrees longer than my arm (and indeed every limb on my body) that are not afraid to acknowledge what NO politician today, no major media outlet could ever acknowledge - we are in REAL trouble. And a few tweaks to the system will absolutely NOT be enough to maintain status quo for the long term, or perhaps even the mediumterm.

Whether we can meet these challenges or not, at least The Oil Drum is asking the right questions instead of the horribly, at times criminally misguided ones of the MSM. Which makes this site absolutely essential reading.

Thank you, and see you next year and beyond!