<DrumBeat: April 18, 2008 The Oil Drum DrumBeat: April 19, 2008>

164 comments on Last Week's EIA Conference

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westexas on April 18, 2008 - 10:30am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

After the Titanic hit the iceberg, the first person to realize that the ship would sink was Thomas Andrews, whose company built the ship. Within a couple of hours or so, everyone realized that the ship would sink (some realized it as they were drowning, or dying from hypothermia). So, it was a continuum from one person to everyone.

In a sense, when we started consuming fossil fuels, especially at an exponential rate of increase, we "hit the iceberg," and King Hubbert was one of the first to realize what was happening. We are basically on the continuum from virtually one person, Hubbert, to everyone.

My current opinion is that one should generally refrain from arguing with Yerginites, and instead offer to sell them your rapidly depreciating suburban home.

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Gail the Actuary on April 18, 2008 - 11:14am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

LOL! There were a few peak oil believers at the conference, but not a huge number. I ran into about six that identified themselves as TOD readers.

A lot of EIA people I talked to (often working in areas having nothing to do with oil) were interested when I mentioned the TOD site, and wanted my business card. Quite a lot of the people there were from EIA.

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Geckolizard on April 18, 2008 - 11:28am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

My current opinion is that one should generally refrain from arguing with Yerginites, and instead offer to sell them your rapidly depreciating suburban home.

Sell it to them in Yergins.

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noutram on April 18, 2008 - 4:26pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

< / Chuckles off>

Jeff, some of your ELM predictions are for pretty severe declines which will very shortly be undeniable. In fact, if your plausible model is correct, within the next 5 years or so there will be a "Black Swan" event (The 2013 'UN Nations Energy Crisis Report' perhaps?) which will be the equivalant of The Titanics Captain broadcasting Mr Andrews realisation over the ships tannoy...

Assuming that most TOD readers consider themselves as the equivalent of the small clique crowded around the table as Mr Andrews unscrolls his architecture charts and declares the ship has "but a few hours" what are we to do?

Any breakaway from that small group would either not be believed -"The Titanic is unsinkable"- or perhaps save just a few... The majority still drowned after all...

Nick.

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Mamba on April 19, 2008 - 4:31am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Noutram, we can at least try to save ourselves. Buy gold and silver, bicycles, some arable land, solar panels, literature on organic farming and poultry farming, and anything else you can think may be useful when the 18-wheelers stop rolling and the container ships thin out. Even small things, for example a straight razor, sharpening stone and strop so you can shave when the plastic razors become too expensive or rare.

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164 comments on Last Week's EIA Conference

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