The Oil Drum

Well, Pitt, you've just painted yourself into a nice corner. Stick to the facts, he says. If we stick to the facts, an inevitable consequence in any conversation with any rational human being is "What does this mean to me?" And this is where the rubber meets the road. If you cannot convince someone that there is a personal impact, then they will take no action. In order to convince someone that there is a personal impact, you must speculate about possible consequences. No one, not even you, knows the future about peak oil with any certainty. So lacking context and unable to do anything except recite facts about oil supplies, discovery rates, and (currently) declining production, one is left unable to draw conclusions or to speculate about possible consequences.

In other words, your long diatribe is full of nonsense, Pitt. We must draw conclusions about the future, which, by definition, are opinions! Now, you can argue that we should be cautious in our conclusions. You can argue that extreme conclusions hurt our image. But without conclusions that mean something to the person listening to the recitation of facts, there will be zero motivation to do anything because the assumption, based upon their personal experience, will be that "technology will save us" and that therefore it is not their personal problem.

So no, I won't stop with the conjecture. I won't stop wondering what will happen. I won't refuse to consider the worst case scenarios just because you insist that I do so.

And finally we have the usual ad hominem straw man juvenile BS, which I never expected from you, Pitt, least of all you.

Anyone who honestly wants to talk to others about peak oil, just stick to the plain, verifiable facts - anything you can't convince others of is probably your personal opinion. For those who just enjoy ranting about their apocalyptic fantasies, go to the hell you seemingly desire.

There it is in black and white, Pitt the Elder accusing anyone who talks about grim scenarios as someone who must inevitably want those scenarios to come to pass. Did your grandfather tell Winston Churchill that he must have wanted the Nazis to attack because he warned about it? Yes, that is how absurd your argument sounds. Completely comically ridiculous right on its face.

"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Dr. Albert Bartlett
Into the Grey Zone