yeah I was shocked when i heard that speech aswell

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/mp3clip ... idence.mp3

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeche ... idence.htm

an american president actually 'got it'

The peak oil concept was well understood by all educated people by the 1970s, although not under that specific name. Presidents Nixon 1969-1974, Ford 1974-1977, and Carter 1977-1981 all addressed energy issues in an honest manner and represented middle of the road thought.

I supported the Quixotic campaign of then California Governor Jerry Brown for President against Jimmy Carter in the 1976 Presidential primaries. Brown had what today we would call a Green party platform and wanted to expand use of renewable wind and solar energy. Jimmy Carter was a nuclear engineer and was pushing nuclear power, drilling Alaska, and conservation measures as was the incumbent Gerald Ford.
When Reagan/Bush Sr. took power in 1981, the solar panels were stripped off the White House and energy issues have not been honestly discussed with the public since. Of note, the current President Bush has a complete off the grid solar powered retreat at his Crawford Ranch, but has never suggested that anyone else make similar plans.

The problem was then...the same as it is now...PEOPLE DONT FRIGGIN WANNA HEAR IT!
Jimmy Carter bought a 1 way ticket out of office by saying it.
That is the sad truth to the matter...now...look in the mirror!

Well I can no longer feel bad for what might come.
If I saw a person purposely bashing their hand with a hammer I would not feel any sympathy for their pain. I see little difference in what American and western society has done to itself in its willful ignorance.

Thanks for posting those links - I'd heard about thoses speeches but never read them. I've found a lot of people of that generation use him to debunk the whole PO theory - yeah yeah we've heard this all before and look what happended then.

Just a quick question coming from sheer ignorance to past consumption levels of the world at large - in his first speech he talks of a global peak in the early 80s, just years later. 5% increase per year, year after year, up from 60Mb/d.

Once Reagan hit the scene, as is mentioned in this thread, the energy worries of the 70s quickly became a distant memory. Instead of 5-8 years to peak it turned into nearly 30. What major events transpired that caused his short term prediction to be so far off?

Demand destruction caused by the two oil shocks of the 70's, discovery of new oil provinces in the North Sea and Alaska, and paradoxically the outcomes of even limited conservation measures undertaken in the U.S. as a result of Jimmy Carter's energy efforts all helped to stave off the inevitable for another 20-30 years.

Unfortunately no more such luck with respect to finding vast new oil fields or prudent political leadership is likely to save us from future oil shocks.

My, how times have changed:
Quote from the Crisis of Confidence speech:

Bold emphasis mine.
If the differences today doesn't tell you that we, as a nation have screwed up mightily, then nothing will.
K

Carter did do one bad thing, however. And, being a nuclear engineer he should have known better. In an attempt to reduce nuclear weapons proliferation, he signed into law the one that prevents the US from building breeder reactors.

This causes us to throw away or otherwise ship out of the country a lot of potential energy from uranium 238. U238 when it accepts a neutron becomes U239 then decays into Plutonium 239 which . . . and eventually becomes usable fuel. (Sorry for the ellipsis (three dots) but I didn't want to completely bore you with the details. Easily looked up on the net though.)

I was a kid when Carter was president, and I didn't like him then. He did come across as ineffectual and weak.
But from an adult perspective, I can see that the voters got what they wanted. In the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, people wanted a political outsider in the White House. Someone free from the corruption of established DC politicians like Nixon. The only problem is, outsiders have no connections. Carter did not have the kind of ties to Congress and other DC movers and shakers that the job of president really requires. He couldn't get anything done for that reason, and it made him look weak.

But yes, we knew about peak oil back in the 1970s. The Club of Rome wrote Limits to Growth in 1972. Because of the oil embargo, gas was rationed and there were long lines at the pumps. People could fill up on even or odd days, depending on their license plate numbers. With all that going on, it was hard to deny the reality of peak oil. I remember my dad telling me we'd run out of oil in 30 or 40 years - and he's a conservative scientist, not prone to jumping to conclusions.
No one was terribly worried, though. 30 or 40 years is a long time, and Americans were full of confidence back then. We'd recently put men on the moon, in less than a decade. Surely we could solve the peak oil problem just as easily.

And we did do some things. Speed limits were lowered to 55 mph by federal law, in order to promote conservation. New standards for fuel efficiency were set for cars, and building codes were changed to make homes and offices more energy-efficient. Money was poured into alternative energy research: fusion, fission, ethanol, wind, geothermal, solar, and yes, even biodiesel from algae.
But when oil prices fell back in the '80s, people forgot all about peak oil. Eventually, even the speed limits were raised above 55 mph, with most drivers forgetting they were set that low for fuel efficiency, not for safety.

I think most people still assume that technology will save us. Even though we don't have much time left, and decades of research and billions of dollars have not found workable alternative energy sources.

One thing I do remember about the Carter energy speech is that he called it the "moral equivalent of war."

That phrase became the much ridiculed acronym "MEOW."

I am 54. I was 26 at the time and going to college at Arizona State University. I was very active in the environmental movement and was promoting a solar/hydrogen agenda due to my concerns over global-warming.
How did people react? Those of us involved in energy issues were thrilled! Those who saw the world from a infinite mindset, said he was a fool! Much like we see here on peak oil.com when it comes to a conservation/powerdown vs space mirrors debate. Not much has changed, only the steepness of the cliff we are about to go over.

Some may disparage Carter as a weak leader, but it took great strength to stand up and speak the truth for a change. He was, and still is, one of our great Presidents.

Well from a hindsight view - what a legend for doing what he did - and shame on people for not sorting it out then and there

Interesting that Carter was making the same predictions the PO crowd is today, and that basically none of them came true in the time frame he indicated. Why not? How can we be sure the new batch of predictions is more accurate?

If I was to bet I would say that he understood human nature so made it a clear and present danger.
"If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done."