Fun Stuff > ENJOY

History books.

<< < (8/9) > >>

Bastardous Bassist:
Because, like global warming, those liberal scientists all tend to agree on it.

E. Spaceman:
Given that I know Odi to be a mostly reasonable person, i think he is not denying peak oil as such but the idea that peak oil is THE issue which tips the world into turmoil.

Of more interest to me is the idea that decline is not an inevitable part of a society.


On topic, although not on the same academic level (or intent) than several of the books on this thread, I can credit a good chunk of my interest in anything to Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe series.

JD:
I forgot to mention The Professor And The Madman, which is about the creation of the OED.

KvP:
For some bullshit assignment in my International Relations class I've gone all the way back to 2000 or thereabouts and pulled out a little old book called Blowback, which was a timely herald of the post-9/11 years.

As far as Peak Oil goes, I believe Odi wrote a post some time ago in another thread talking about how it was one of those things that was always supposed to be terrifyingly imminent but somehow never quite happened with the severity of consequences people always imagined. They seem to resemble most those less secular people who are perpetually anticipating the End Times. Even with something like Climate Change, which we can be assured exists, there are people we could call "collapsists" who say that we're past the point where any meaningful reforms can be implemented. Recall that UN report that said we were close to that threshold for permanent alterations to the climate. But there's a significant debate over the exact dimensions of the problem. With the data we have there doesn't seem much we can say in exact terms for the future.

supersheep:
Yes, I'm not going to deny that there is some point at which the amount of oil produced will peak and then drop - that is a simple mathematical fact. But that's the trivial sense. What I deny is the conclusion that this leads to INEXORABLE CATASTROPHE. We will not suddenly drop from our present peak back to the stone age, nor will oil prices shoot up immediately. In fact, rising oil prices make it more economical to extract oil from marginal sources, so oil will continue (even at higher prices) for a lot longer than peak oil fans would have you believe. To be honest, I think it's perfectly within the capabilities of capital to successfully manage a transition away from fossil fuels without major systemic shock. Also, if peak oil was a legitimate near-term concern and/or a cause for collapse then capitalism would notice and the price of oil would shoot up (note that the opposite is not true, as speculative trading is the probable cause for the recent oil price peak.

Malthus was, and always will be, wrong. (Except in the trivial sense of there being an upper limit to how many people the earth can physically support, but once again - simple mathematical fact. It's also far greater than our current population.)

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page