Dave Hughes vs. The New York Times
On November 17, The New York Times published a long article under the title “There Will Be Fuel,” maintaining that “the outlook, based on long-term trends barely visible five years ago, now appears to promise large supplies of oil and gas from multiple new sources for decades into the future.” The basic argument: Shortages and high prices have stimulated exploration and discoveries, and unconventional fuel sources (from the deep oceans, the tar sands and so forth) will provide reasonably-priced oil for many decades to come. You can read the piece here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/business/energy-environment/17FUEL.html
Nonsense, says David Hughes, one of our earlier interviewees.
“Rarely is the public treated to such inaccurate, misleading and unhelpful ‘journalism,’” writes Hughes, “even in this era of political spin and smoke and mirrors surrounding energy.” Oil and gas “are finite resources that are being consumed at unprecedented and growing rates,” and “the growth trajectory of the already high consumption levels in the industrialized world and the rapid growth in consumption in the developing world is patently unsustainable. Articles such as this falsely promote complacency and thus are an extreme disservice to understanding the energy sustainability dilemma facing the World.”
You can read Dave’s full response here. http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/185293-there-will-be-fuel-an-open