The oil is going, the oil is going!

That's the apropos title for this Salon article on peak oil.

The author, Katharine Mieszkowski, is thorough in her assessment with dozens of links to the Peak Oil canon. She tries to end the piece optimistically, but it sounds like delusion in place of denial.

I have two pet peeves with politicians (or even pundits) mouthing off about energy, as in this article. One is the use of the word 'spike', suggesting a temporary rise in real energy prices. The other is the reference to a dependence on 'foreign' oil; it's oil, period.

Another question that warrants investigation is: how do Peak Oil alarmists (of whom admittedly I'm one) view the Global Warming alarmists? I would say scoffingly. Though related as I've pointed out before, the one threat is much greater than the other.

On the subject of global warming, C-span's BookTV presented a panel of authors on the subject from the March 25-26 Virginia Festival of the Book, including:

Tim Flannery, "The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth"

Elizabeth Kolbert, "Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change"

William Ruddiman, "Plows, Plagues, and Petroleum: How Humans Took Control of Climate"

At the end of the Q&A, a lady asked how would peak oil (and depletion) affect global warming. The answer was to the point, but cut short. Hello? Can't you see that Sword of Damocles?

CNN wonders

The preview asks: What if our addiction to oil becomes a world wide crisis? It could happen. A chilling all new CNN Presents: We Were Warned: Tommorrow's Oil Crisis. The program looks at:
Interviews with James Wolsey and Matthew Simmons
World oil consumption, including that of China
Gulf of Mexico production
Alberta tar sands
Ethanol, especially that made in Brazil
Interview with GM VP on American car production

In his interview. Matthew Simmons is asked 'what is the worst case scenario?' His answer: 'You don't want to go there', but when pressed, goes on to suggest a series of energy wars between neighbors, cities, states, etc.

On the web page, one video link titled 'Long War of the 24th century' contains a (not so slight) misprint; that should read '21st century'.
Note: archived videos on CNN require subscription. The whole hour-long program does not appear to be available yet from CNN.