ROCKMAN wrote: But the problem isn't with the "peak oil hypothesis" because it isn't an hypothesis but an absolute fact: there will come a day when the world will never produce more oil (or NG, or coal, or watermelons, or etc). The hypothesis is the speculated date of any such peak.
Plantagenet and I discussed this already. The axiomatic part of Hubbert's claim is not in dispute. BECAUSE it is axiomatic. Of course there will be a peak. Of course the random speculation of when that peak takes places is wildly entertaining, and some zealots are very unhappy when they call one date, and get it wrong. So unhappy that they begin to redefine what hydrocarbons are in order to not be wrong! Don't ask me why, ignorance of basic organic chemistry has never struck me as a valid excuse for being so wrong.
Rockman wrote:And then there's the other good reason (besides the possibility of being wrong and hurting my esteemness): the date doesn't make any eaningful difference to what matters to all of us.
Quite true. What matters is the relationship between supply and demand, not supply alone. But this is the part of where economics grabbed peak oil by the short hairs and ripped them out, leaving peakers screaming about unfair it is, others knowing things they don't. Like it the other guys fault that peakers refused to learn from all the past claims of peak and running out. Those who refuse to learn history are doomed to repeat it...
Rockman wrote:Maybe in 50 to 100 years we can look back and be completely certain that the final single PO date was June, 19XX. And the price of oil that date? IMHO it could just as easily be $40/bbl or $100/bbl. And the global economy might be booming or crashing on that date.
Hubbert looked back on peak oil in Ohio, during the early 1900's. Used it as an example in his seminal 1956 work. Then it about peaked again. 80 years later.
Might need to sit on that 100 year marker, just to be sure. Took the entire US 55 years to repeak, so, yup, call it a century to be sure.
Rockman wrote:So again: why argue about the date of any event if that event is of little or no importance?
Agreed. Everyone who ever picked a date, in the past or now, are just run of the mill ignorant. The date just doesn't matter, and the event itself is axiomatic. Sounds like its time to close up the website and go home, now that we've discounted the value of any conversation related to this topic for at least a century.
You did it Rockman!!