Bryant Urstadt writes about the Peak Oil phenomenon in the cover story of the new Harper's Magazine that I just got in the mail.

He does a pretty good job, traveling to the Yellow Springs conference and hanging out with the New York Peak Oil group. He obviously read a lot of the books that have come out in the last couple of years on the subject.

He also outlines the American history of end-of-the-world movements, and talks about how the p-o movement resembles some of these. He discusses the idea of lifeboats and of ecotopian survival communities. He "gets it" on how hard this would be on any kind of scale.

But he does not ridicule the movement, because he thinks they might be right this time. The facts do seem difficult to ignore.

Anyway, this article is well written and should be on the newstands within the next few days. Harper's, of course, does not have a Web presence, so I guess you'll have to buy it, or go to the library.

Are they actually using the term, "Liberal Apocalypse?" What is that supposed to mean?

Presumably a "conservative apocalypse" is one in which Jesus, terrorists, or nuclear weapons kill everyone, while a "liberal apocalypse" involves resource shortages, overpopulation, climate change, etc.

Couldn't you have both at the same time? What kind of Apocalypse would it be then?

Labeling it a "liberal" apocalypse seems to be a kind of ridicule....

Ludi, I thought it was a smear also but after reading the article I understand and agree. Some Christians want this decadent society to end in a biblical hell and some environmentalists want it to end in secular flames

I have a good friend who is a life-long hippy, back-to-the-lander, permaculturist who (to paraphrase) 'has been waiting for peak oil all her life. ' I also hate the stupidity, greed, and especially gross materialism of american culture and I want that to end. Peak oil is a nice way to stop the machine.

The article was about the peakoil movement, not the geology. It portrayed the peakoilers with affection and respected them without resorting to pomposity. It was a fun read for me. I'll bet it opened a lot of eyes WIDE

I'm not sure why someone would be waiting to get poor, along with most other people getting poor. I mean, I sort of understand what you're saying, but, no, I don't like it. It's not a good thing, not a thing to be looked forward to but something bad that might be a little less bad than some other really horribly bad things (which might happen anyway).

I read the article yesterday on the newsstand. I highly recommend it. It is interesting to note that a number of the (us) peakniks are financial advisors and others who have to say one thing to their sheeple and buy another at the coin shop. I agree with pstarr's sentiments.

I also couldn't help but wonder who in that article are here on this forum. There seemed to be some vaguely similar personalities.

A lot of people move up here for the same reason. To wait out the apocolypse, liberal or otherwise. Can't say it didn't enter my mind also

Neat. It looks like it's actually the cover story:

I didn't really care for the article. He spends a good deal of time going into apocalypse cults in American history, which is really trying to stick a square peg in a round hole. It's most blatant when he tries to go after Hubbert's prediction of the date of world peak, describing the peak-oilists as backpedalling with the OPEC embargo.

Hubbert came up with the modelling techniques that produce the prediction. He wasn't a Nostradamus predicting the date based on some immutable divine predestination. The date was ancillary to the model, and the model is fully capable of being updated based on new data. Isn't that what ASPO has been busy doing?

The "liberal apocalypse" or "leftist Left Behind" describes a certain Schadenfreude expressed a fair amount in discussion which overemphasizes the satisfaction of the peak oil hobbyists like you and me who with a mixture of fear and anticipation cannot help but speculate on what will happen.

For Harper's first full blown peak oil article to not mention ASPO or Simmons, or any other hard research by name, but instead focus on the utopianism of a few stragglers at the Peak Oil convention is pretty shoddy.

did he give links/mentions to any prominent PO sites?

Here's something I find truly amazing: of all the peak oil articles by the mainstream press I think the best one was the Fortune Magazine article on Richar Rainwater.

Now I got my handsome mug photographed for that so obviously I'm biased. However, even if I remove that I still think it was the best because:

A. It said (more or less) we're in really, really deep shit

B. It backed up A by referring to an Alpha-Male with $500 million in cold hard cash he's put on the table to back this up.

If you know human psychology (herd mentality) you understand why "B" was a great way to give the issue credibility.

On the other hand the Harpers article seems to link "A" with whacko conspiracy doom cults so if you know human psychology that was a great way to take away credibility but in a subtle enough way the author can't be knocked for not reporting the issue honestly.

Best,

Matt

What gets my goat is that, for the sake of an "Aren't We So Clever" moment, Harpers' has just managed to pigeonhole the issue as being partisan. Which it is not, as the regular partisan flamefests here demonstrate clearly.

But what happens is, if the article succeeds at that, then no matter what else happens, approximately half of the electorate will pooh-pooh the issue.

On the other hand maybe that's a good thing. AutoDarwinization is merciful compared to a lot of other things that can happen to people in times of overshoot & collapse.

I didn't care for the apocalyptic end-of-the-world cultism either. But I guess he was after the sociological take on the phenomenon of peak oil.

A hard thing for good journalists is that this is a hard subject to nail down with concrete information. There's a lot of circumstantial evidence that oil may have already peaked, but where's the proof?

So you're left with what may or may not be a millinary movement.

How would you guys write a major national magazine piece on the sociology of the peak-oil movement?

This is not the case, but since they live of their subsrcribers don´t expect the article to be posted free at this point (it might be at some point though).

http://www.harpers.org/

Also, check out Harpers Index on the left while you're on their site, sort of entertaining.