The Oil Drum

19th century whaling is today one of the best examples we have of a complete cycle of exploitation of a natural resource.

The production curves of whale oil and whale bone in the United States in 19th century (from "History of the American whale fishery" by A. Starbuck, 1878). Both show a clear bell shaped Hubbert's curve. Click to enlarge.

When the Oil Exports article was published here at TOD, profG was kind enough to disseminate it through out the blog-sphere, posting it at places such as SlashDot. I was very curious and went there to see the folks' comments.

Most commentators simply dismissed Peak Oil as a possibility. My first reaction was of nausea, I just couldn't believe it; these people are completely delusional. With so many people thinking like this, will we ever be able to change something, to have some kind of impact?

Then I thought I could make something good of it, because that thread had the value of being a collection of the main contrarian arguments against our message.

This is the first of a series of posts where I'll analyze the kind of contrarian arguments seen there and how to address them.