Anyone who's overly concerned should check out "The Skeptical Environmentalist," which surveys the environmental situation and points out that we're often not as bad off as we think we are:
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0521010683>
Overly, or appropriately? That's the question, and it cannot be answered by any single book. For very point there is a counterpoint, and for every million people who could benefit from cheap, plentiful energy there's someone with more power than them who benefits from keeping energy scarce and expensive.
I was skeptical about peak oil, so I started reading everything I could find on it last year. I found that estimates vary broadly, with some doom-and-gloomers saying we already passed it in 1999, and one lone researcher (funded by the oil industry) who claimed it was 50 years out. The overwhelming majority of researchers suggest 10 to 30 years, with most of those betting on 20.
Oil is a finite commodity, so it's not a question of when peak oil will occur, but when.
One good thing about peak oil: some researchers have suggested that we won't hit the point of irreversible damage from global warming because there isn't enough oil left to do that. :)
Read what you can find, checked the industrial affiliations of researchers, remain skeptical of everyone, draw your own conclusions.
When one of them says trees cause cancer, or the air at Ground Zero is safe to breathe, or oil is infinite, double-check the facts.
<http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/rsi/page.cfm?pageID=1322>
-- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Media Corporation ___________________________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.FourthWorld.com _______________________________________________ use-revolution mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
