The Oil Drum | Report from 33d Intl. Geology Congress in Norway (By Charlie Hall)

164 comments on Report from 33d Intl. Geology Congress in Norway (By Charlie Hall)

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tirwin on August 24, 2008 - 10:18am

If a group of geologists don´t get peak oil what chance does the rest of the world have? Any chance that this is one of those instances where it is difficult to see the truth if you are being paid not to see it?

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Bryant on August 24, 2008 - 11:02am

Geologists are just humans like you. The rational brain is but a veneer over the more simian.

We are, by training and temperament, inclined to look at the long view. Likewise, we geologists still regard catastrophism as suspect despite all the catastrophes revealed in the geologic record.

Uniformitarianism...it's the law.

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daniel morris on August 24, 2008 - 11:03am

At least for peak oil, shortages will be felt in the marketplace. The apparent ignorance of much of the geological community will change in the face of facts on the ground. As for the quack science, the more exposure these theories get the more effort is directed at proving them wrong - if they are. Even addressing climate change is not hopeless. Who would have believed 5 years ago that Americans would drive less in 2008.

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sendoilplease on August 24, 2008 - 11:19am

The geologists without a clue are likely caught up in the minutia of their individual research and lives. Grants to apply for, papers to write, post docs to beat, seminars to fly to, deans to please, mates and family that need at least 5 minutes a day of attention... they are victims of their own little rat races.

They will become MUCH more interested in peak oil when the symptoms start affecting them personally like all the other stupid bipedal apes on the planet.

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Iconoclast421 on August 25, 2008 - 2:15pm

Geologists don't get a lot of things. Most of them still think that continents "tool around the earth". I guess they believe that the pangean earth, when viewed from space, was a big blue eyeball with a brown / green iris. I can't help but laugh every time I try to visualize it. It's so absurd the things that supposedly educated people believe.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B776B41EB68F12C1

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ET on August 25, 2008 - 2:37pm

Most geologists also maintain the obviously erroneous notion that the earth spins West to East. LOL!

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Iconoclast421 on August 26, 2008 - 5:35pm

Let me guess... you watched the video for 5 seconds and determined that because an animation of a globe was spinning in the "wrong" direction, it must mean that the whole thing is bogus. This is typical of the kind of nonsensical nitpicking attacks on Samuel Warren Carey's work. Talk about missing the point...

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aangel on August 25, 2008 - 7:34pm

Never seen that before.

I understand that the theory of how it happened may not yet be fully worked out, but that is some pretty compelling video.

If I were coming at the problem with fresh eyes and compared the two theories, I would say the expanding earth theory wins round 1.

Fascinating.

More here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanding_earth_theory

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Bryant on August 25, 2008 - 11:50pm

Please tell me you posted this link as a joke.

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aangel on August 26, 2008 - 10:32am

Well, I've spent a few hours that I don't have refreshing myself on basic geology and won't spend more time on it.

Reminded me of the process I went through learning about peak oil, but in this case I'm not so interested to follow it all the way through.

Normally I give these theories a fair hearing (like the free energy ones) because I don't think we're at the end of instances where we are collectively completely wrong about certain commonly held beliefs. (As people on this site can attest to.)

When someone says 'all of science needs to be overthrown if you accept my assertion,' that's usually a red flag for me that extra scrutiny is needed, though.

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Iconoclast421 on August 26, 2008 - 3:26pm

I've seen it before a hundred times. The knee jerk mentality portrayed above. "Surely you must be joking! Yuck. Yuck. Yuck. But I'm not going to take 30 minutes to actually examine the evidence in an intellectually honest manner."

It takes great confidence to put yourself out on a limb to say that a whole branch of science is wrong. But if people did not do this, then we would still be arguing about the earth being flat. The evidence for expansion tectonics, or torsional tectonics, is overwhelming. The fact that it is relegated into perpetual obscurity speaks volumes about the level of control and indoctrination in western culture.

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Cretaceous on August 28, 2008 - 5:19am

There are so many arguments against the "expanding earth" hypothesis that it's hardly worth starting.

However, in case other readers are wondering about a simple counter-argument, the enormous variation in the age of the major parts of the continents (e.g. North American cratons, colour-coded below) is completely unexplained by an "expanding earth".

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DaveMart on August 28, 2008 - 2:07pm

I found the videos fascinating if rather uninformative as they did not specify what the 'simple rules' were by which the fits were made.
Without that information it is impossible to determine how good the fit really is, or if liberties have been taken.

One thing which immediately occurs is that if the oceans are only 180 million or so years old, why did expansion only start then?

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164 comments on Report from 33d Intl. Geology Congress in Norway (By Charlie Hall)

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“So one may almost say that the theory of universal suffrage assumes that the Average Citizen is an active, instructed, intelligent ruler of his country. The facts contradict this assumption.”

—James Bryce (1909, 35)