No disruption Curmudgeon...? Exactly WHAT do you think is happening at the moment..?

When oil worked its way up to $147 last year, the cost of everything went up too, not least of course petrol and food. But worse, the morons who run the economy called it "inflation" (inflation is the devaluation of money, NOT the cost of things going up) and so raised interest rates as well....

So people on marginal incomes spat the dummy on their mortgages (in a very big way in the US) and the housing bubble popped. The rest as they say, is history, and whilst this recession would have occurred anyway due to idiotic debt levels, it was Peak Oil that triggered the sudden collapse of the economy last year and the demise of many US banks.....

Now the US economy is beyond recovery, there will be little or no investment in new oil infrastructure, and this recession will continue for years and years and will eventually (if it hasn't already) turn into a depression with no end.

Unlike the last depression when the US was swimming in oil, this one doesn't have the energy base to even sputter out of the big hole we've dug ourselves into....

Expect fuel shortages soon....

Squeers .. "Environmentalism is just another ideology that people either deny or hop on board to assuage guilt--as long as no real pain has to be endured"

How true, and if you do hop on board, you sure want everyone:
1. To know you're on board, no point doing this quietly is there?
2. To demand the government do whatever it is your sect, group, association, foundation, club, institute or whatever, wants done, NOW!
3. To demand everyone else instantly sign up to your beliefs or else! (there's even murmurings of it being a crime not to be sufficiently on board, see AGW forums, and "denial")
4. To join your sect etc, not someone else's, because you're different, and anyway, they're wrong.
5. To attain rapture as soon as possible, the current eco/enviro types all seem to have zero patience, is that just a result of the instant gratification internet world?
6 Agree the world is ending via, bleaching of reefs, peak oil/gas, over-population, AGW, polar bears and many other things are dying, then make that thing your shtick and endlessly bother people that's it's almost too late and there's a TIPPING POINT COMING!
7. To quietly forget all this when yet another doom is dodged like so many through the ages, and no one quite remembers how it all got started, but let's just put it behind us.

We'll adapt, regardless of the "look at me" antics of our politicians who love attention and various groups who all demand their problem is the big one and must be funded and fixed NOW!

I guess once you sign up to these sort of ideologies, you have to keep going or feel a little silly. Like a Christian or whatever having that realization that atheism is a possibility after all.

No, no! The price spike of a while back does not count as disruption .. economists are still struggling to explain it but, sorry, peak oil has fallen out of the mix. The link below is to the article the mainstream is quoting at the moment.. has generally favourable reviews. Note the increase in global proved oil reserves in the graph on page 25.. for most observers that about kills peak oil.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19401722/World-Oil-Market-or-Mayhem-by-James-Smith

RPG - your comments on environmentalists is simplistic, stereotyped, facile and inane. I often wonder when I read comments like this, what prompts someone clearly in a position of complete ignorance to make sweeping and absolute statements about something he knows nothing about. I can imagine you would have the same approach to climate change. Really, spend some time with different environment groups and you might begin to get a picture.

next - you have your opinion and I have mine.

I find your comments typical of the guilt ridden doomsayers.

such is life.

"Really, spend some time with different environment groups and you might begin to get a picture"

resistance is futile, you will be assimilated

(note to self: must get more heathens converted.)