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The consensus among the global warming deniers is that the war is over. Thanks to a handful of e-mails we now know that global warming is a gigantic hoax foisted upon an unsuspecting public by a cabal of climate scientists bent on garnering grant money to further their own careers.
Okay. Suppose that is true. What now? Do we just go on with business as usual? Do we keep using fossil fuels at a fast and furious rate until ... Until what? Until they run out?
Oops. That would seem to be a bit of a problem, one that the e-mail hoax theory doesn't even begin to address. This has nothing to do with global warming. Rather, this is about the theory of peak oil, the idea that at some point we begin taking less oil out of the ground than before and that this marks the beginning of the end, so to speak, of the fossil fuel era. It even comes complete with its own whistle-blower scandal.
Well guess what? There is a whole community of self-styled peak oil debunkers who will assure you that peak oil is not a problem. Why? Because when all else fails we can switch to alternative energy sources like solar or wind or nuclear power.
But isn't that what the global warming folks are saying? Fossil fuels are the main driver behind the recent surge in average global temperatures. So to stop that process we need to dramatically reduce our use of fossil fuels.
Seems like no matter which direction you come at this problem from, the answers are the same. Business as usual - using fossil fuels as the primary energy source to spur economic growth - has to change. The sooner the better.
This essay first appeared in PlanetRestart.org
