OK, Kossacks, take a break on primary eve to consider an issue that will dominate the rest of our miserable lives, regardless of who is elected.
Reuters reports on a a new international, 16-nation poll out by Worldpublicopionion.org found:
In the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer and among the biggest emitters of climate-warming pollution from fossil fuel use, 76 percent of respondents said oil is running out, but most believed the U.S. government mistakenly assumes there would be enough to keep oil a main source of fuel.
More after the jump...
"Americans perceive that the government is not facing reality," Kull said.
No shit.
If this poll is accurate, it shows once again that the American people are a lot smarter than their elites. Almost no one in government is talking about peak oil, nor in the mainstream media, nor even, for the most part, in the liberal blogosphere -- Jerome a Paris's excellent diaries being the exception that proves the rule.
In fact when the MSM talks about this, they are generally saying just the opposite -- that high gasoline prices are due to temporary imbalances, or speculation, or what have you, with the clear implication that they will be comning back down and we can all go back to our "happy motoring" (in the phrase of the indespensible James Kunstler).
I know from the comments to the Jerome diaries that a lot of Kossacks "get" peak oil. But I have to wonder whether we are giving it the attention it deserves on blogs like this.
This is going to change everything, brothers and sisters, and ways we mostly won't like. Time to become regular readers or The Oil Drum, the authoritative, fact-filled headquarters for all things Peak Energy.
P.S. I have to quibble with the wording of the poll, which asks whether the respondent thinks oil is "running out". That is not quite the right wording, as peakists know. Oil will continue to be produced for decades or centuries, but in declining quantities and at greater expense. Still, that doesn't change the signficance of the poll, in my view.