Debate - Peak Oil - Fact or Myth?

We have heard a lot about ‘Peak Oil’ in the last few months: the theory that the world’s oil reserves are about to peak, and from then on, as prices rocket, we will have to find other ways to power our fuel-thirsty world. Mike Grenville, of Transition Town Forest Gate, will be putting that view across in what promises to be a lively debate, organised by the ‘Changing Times’ lot, in the All Saints. 

His views will be countered by Ian R Crane, who earlier this year used the same forum to air his views that there was a lot more to the 9/11 disaster than meets the eye. Ian worked for a number of years in the oil industry, and he is determined to challenge what he believes to be the ‘received wisdom’ that oil is a fossil fuel. “This isn’t necessarily the case,” he says. “In fact there are a lot of scientists who are arguing that oil is not a fossil fuel at all, and is in fact a self-replenishing mineral.” It is in the corporate world’s interest, he will argue, to encourage environmentalists to argue the peak oil line, in order to push the price of oil even higher. “I agree wholeheartedly with the environmentalists’ desire to find alternative fuels,” he says. “I just think that they have not necessarily got it right about oil, and they have been gratefully accepted as unlikely bedfellows by the leaders of corporatocracy.” Combustible stuff, then: sparks might fly. AL