Peak Oil

One of my favorite science journalists, Alex Witze, had an excellent recent piece in Nature on peak oil (sub. req.). It’s a terrific bit of work because of the thoughtful way Witze embraces the uncertainty, explaining to us why smart and reasonable people disagree about this issue, rather than trying to tell us which answer we should believe.

Both sides issue regular, well-referenced reports that come to opposite conclusions on whether the world is running out of oil. “There’s just no middle ground,” says Kenneth Deffeyes.

I’m all for embracing the uncertainty.

(As an aside, this also reminds me of a piece I wrote a couple of years back on a related topic.)