it's about literacy

Peak oil is very real, and the "export land model" is somewhat terrifying. Jay Hanson's doommongering at dieoff.org only seems more prescient with each passing year.

But Michael Ruppert is the WORST possible way of getting this message out, as he's been a prominent 9/11 "truther" as well.

When you just say stuff is going to go wrong every year and avoid specifics, eventually something does go wrong and you can say "hey! I called that one." Ron Paul built a career on it.

The resource limitation modelers often get this rap. But the Club of Rome's 1972 "Limits to Growth" base case had per capita production turning south around 2020, and population around 2030. In 1956, LK Hubbert predicted US oil peak in 1970 (he was correct) and global peak around 1995. In the 1980s that was revised to 2000-2005, and 4 years later, 2005 is still the peak of conventional crude (not NGLs or bitumen) production.

Its not that resource modellers are forecasting limits that recede every year, its that they've forecast pretty much the same limit, every year, and most of us don't notice until its in the rear view mirror.

The 1970's oil embargo delayed global peak oil for a few years.

can you point me toward any good reading material, godot?

Depends on what you're looking for. I became familiar with immanent resource limits stumbling around dieoff.org in 2001, and every time I dove into the source material I came up with similar conclusions. After some highly leveraged financial speculation based on this body of concerns, I'm pretty secure, but I suspect I would have enjoyed the last decade more had I been oblivious.

www.theoildrum.com has been a center of evidence-based discussion of resources issues for 4 years, and the primers in the LH column are good for starters. Otherwise, I'd recommend Richard Heinberg's "The Party's Over" as the best peak-oil primer, followed by works by Deffeyes, Campbell, Simmons, Odum...the list goes on and on.

Back in 2001, the field of neo-Malthusian nailbiting had only a handful essential tomes, and a few hundred people following it intently. Now, its a bit of a cottage industry.

dieoff.org seems a little silly to me, what with declaring the end of capitalism in its first sentence. But I will definitely be reading The Oil Drum, thanks.

There's no apocalypse, just societal collapse.
And we'll live to see it.

You really think people will stop this nonsense on December 22, 2012 when the last apocalypse was only 9 years ago?

2012 - A new super secret way of decoding the bible shows that the end of the world will be in 2039.

That's impossible, we'll be toast by 2038. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

I think "an intellectual horror movie" is a good description too.

interesting that the only thing capable of truly horrifying Americans is the loss of their lifestyle and privilege

Maybe they were saying it's horrifying how retarded this is?

whoops, HTPI got there first. You're wrong, the only thing that truly horrifies us is Canada.

Having grown up at the end of the cold war, this shit is laughable.

I'll put you down on the "will be killing people and taking their food after society collapses as a monument to a lifetime of denial that bad shit that happens in the future can be predicted."

"...list."

This what he jerks off to.