Favourite peak oil quote of the week
This letter in the print edition of Straight Furrow this week from John of Pukekohe has a new challenge for the peak oil-ologists here at the Green Party to answer:
“A Russian professor”?… “basically said”?… “second law of thermodynamics”. Well that clinches it then. Nothing says convincing science like the second law of thermodynamics. Well, except maybe the 1st and 3rd laws.
You’ll notice how well the Russians have been doing since they discovered a neverending supply of oil.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:21 pm
There was a letter in the press yesterday criticizing the Greens for being anti hydro pro immigration and having no population policy.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Really jh, a letter criticising the Greens?
July 31st, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Yes.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
The idea has been around for some time, but the Russians don’t seem to get as much extra oil appearing in their oilfields as you would expect if this theory were true. And it also conflicts with the widely observed fact that you never find oil more than 1.5 km below the surface, and the fact that the temperatures that are generally thought to exist that deep are too high for oil to survive - it gets turned into natural gas.
Most likely the new oil appearing in Russian oilfields, which inspired this theory, is actually oil that seeped horizontally inwards from the edges of the oil field in response to the pressure drop caused by the extraction of the original oil. Western oil companies have known for decades that this happens, and have mathematical models to take it into account.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:02 pm
as an argument that has got to be on a par with Garth George’s reasoning that sea level rise and global warming can’t be true because God told us after the flood that he would never flood us again and would give us the rainbow as a symbol of that
July 31st, 2008 at 10:22 pm
didn’t He also say that it would be fire next time? Fire = global warming
July 31st, 2008 at 11:39 pm
here is an on-the-money climate-change prediction..from 1958..
http://whoar.co.nz/2008/video-global-warming-predictions-were-right-on -in-1958/
phil(whoar.co.nz)
August 1st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Don’t forget the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.
There’s even a genre of Graphic Novels riffing on the Book of Revelation these days. Who knew the Bible could spawn great comic book art? Beats Buffy re-runs!
Much more fun than looking for plagues of locusts, hurricanes, floods, wars, pestilence … no, wait, we’ve seen those happen haven’t we? Some of the above, even in Australia!
err, glad I don’t believe the Bible literally