Some Thoughts on "Peak Oil" as a "Disinformation Campaign"  

There's a good post up by Steven at Deconsumption analysing the possibility that peak oil is just a disinformation campaign - with some interesting insights on the process of creating (and deconstructing) memes on the internet as opposed to traditional methods.

First of all, the Peak Oil argument is not new, by any means...it has actually been around for many decades (I somewhat remember a reference to it being posited "in theory" even prior to the turn of the 20th century), but has been steadily gaining a weight of evidence and popular acceptance only recently. If it appears to have suddenly "burst" onto the scene it's due to two principle factors: 1) the "tipping point" is only now fast being realized, and 2) the rise of the internet has given the public a comprehensive, responsive and uncensored media forum in which to recognize it. The former factor stems from the prevalent human characteristic for ignoring undesireable signs and warnings until they can no longer be ignored. But the latter is, I believe, the key to the whole question....