Peak Oil: What Does Any Of This Mean? – Peak Oil Matters.
Daniel Yergin’s Pulitzer Prize (for his book The Quest) has earned him a fair amount of street cred, judging by how often his opinions are solicited on the state of fossil fuel supply and production. I haven’t read the book, but I’d be lying if I said that anyone worthy of a Pulitzer Prize doesn’t merit a measure of respect regardless of what one thinks of her or his opinions or ideologies.
When Cornucopians have run out of the few partial- or pseudo-facts they rely upon as the foundation for the magnificent spin they place on finite resources and reality, after a while the lines blur between plausible and “huh?” It would appear that major literary rewards does not make one immune to that assessment, nor elevate them to a position where they are not obliged to resort to the same puffery and light-on-facts commentary so prevalent in our public discourse on peak oil and climate change, among other issues of considerable impact.
Earlier this year, we were treated to the observations below by Mr. Yergin in aninterview conducted by McKinsey. My comments follow in [ ].
To his credit—and at least from my observations in reading a dozen or so articles of his over the past few years—he does have a broader perspective on how we must meet our energy needs in the future.
But like too many of his peers, the unwillingness to address not just specifics, but acknowledge the limitations and legitimate concerns of fossil fuel production (which he must certainly understand) winds up doing more of a disservice to the public than anything else. If presumed experts are telling only part of the story, what’s the point?
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
