Jeremy is just doing his job, that is, working for his company to maximise profits now and in the future. Looking for any selfless motive in his words is folly and naivete in the extreme. Within years, Shell and the other oil companies will be making enragingly-high profits as oil goes ballistic, and as an angry public seeks scapegoats. He is positioning his company so that it cannot be sued for knowing the truth and saying nothing (see Big Tobacco).

So nothing to see here, move along.

It is not a given that just because a man works for an oil company that they have no selfless motives. Would you have been as cynical in the late 1950s when M. King Hubbard was warning about US oil production peaking. Would you have said, Mamba, that looking for selfless motives in the words of M. King Hubbard was naivete in the extreme? Remember Hubbard worked for Shell also.

Cynicism is sometimes justified but some people carry it to the extremes. It is just possible that Jeremy Leggett, like Hubbard, actually sees peak oil as the disaster coming down the pike and is desperately trying to warn both his company and the world of the impending disaster in hopes that it may be mitigated slighted if swift and desperate action is taken.

Ron Patterson

There's a huge difference between a scientist like MKH and an oil CEO. My comments stand.

Jeremy is not an oil CEO; quite to the contrary, his firm is almost exclusively renewables. I personally see quite a few similarities between M. K. Hubbert and Jeremy Leggett.

Jeremy Leggett, a geologist by training, began his career as a consultant for the oil industry, having received funding from Royal School of Mine as well as oil companies BP and Shell [1], but later became an environmental campaigner for Greenpeace, before evolving into a social entrepreneur and author. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Leggett

Jeremy Leggett is not an oil CEO and never was. He was once a consultant for Shell but no more. He is now the CEO for his own created solar energy company. Obviously he foresaw the demise of the oil industry and is concentrating his efforts in something that will make a difference, something that just might help mitigate the coming collapse. Leggett is a trained geologist just like M. King Hubbard.

So because you thought Leggett was the CEO of an oil company, it is obvious that your comments are way off in left field. ("Off in Left Field", that is an American euphemism for "Totally unaware of what is really going on.")

Ron Patterson

LOL! Sometimes this is too easy. Hope others got a laugh out of this too, ;)