If I Wanted America to Fail....

[Rainbird]

Kasz216 said:

Rainbird said:

Actually, if you follow the link in my post, research is showing that we hit peak oil around 2008. That's not to say that it's definitive evidence, but the reasoning is fairly sound. And I do think most governments in the world are accutely aware of increasing oil prices, I know prices have been climbing steadily for a few years here in Denmark at least.

But let's say we haven't hit peak oil yet. Why shouldn't we be preparing for when we inevitably run out of oil, not to mention coal and all the other finite resources we're dependant on?

Well

A) Demand for energy is still increasing, so prices will rise regardless of peak oil or not.

B) Your arguement is a false one.  We are preparing for when oil runs out.  The question is, should we sacrifice economic development now, for preperation?  Is the situation so bad, that the price at the end of the line is more then the buildup on the way down.

Economically, the answer is almost always no.

If I knew more about economy, I'd probably just verify what you said in (B). I'm not sure what you're trying to say with (A) though. Yes, prices will rise so long as oil production can't keep up with demand, but seeing as prices are indeed rising, why not try harder to replace oil? Whether it's economically viable is out of my grasp, but I do know that the world is hellishly reliant on oil, both for energy, but for many other things as well, including plastic and medicin. The fact that things are headed the way they are with oil just tells me that we need to keep trying really hard to be properly prepared for when oil is no longer a viable resource.

My reason for bringing all this up in the first place though, is because of the video. It paints a picture of all this focus on moving away from cheap fossil fuels as being bad, when it's certainly not. It's a very real issue, and it's one we need to work hard to solve.