It’s tough keeping up sometimes. I thought that the peak oil conspiracy theory ran like this: The world is much closer to running out of oil than official
The peak oil conspiracy The peak oil conspiracy by David Steven | Feb 9, 2010 It’s tough keeping up sometimes. I thought that the peak oil conspiracy theory ran like this: The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying. The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves. But that, my friends, is so last week. Apparently, the cool kids now believe that: Peak oil is a fraud concocted by the oil industries to increase prices amid concerns about future supplies. The oil industry is aware of vast reserves of untapped oil, but does not utilise them in order to maintain the illusion of scarcity, they claim. The safest thing is probably to believe that both conspiracy theories are true. Author David Steven David Steven is a senior fellow at the UN Foundation and at New York University, where he founded the Global Partnership to End Violence against Children and the Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies, a multi-stakeholder partnership to deliver the SDG targets for preventing all forms of violence, strengthening governance, and promoting justice and inclusion. He was lead author for the ministerial Task Force on Justice for All and senior external adviser for the UN-World Bank flagship study on prevention, Pathways for Peace. He is a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and co-author of The Risk Pivot: Great Powers, International Security, and the Energy Revolution (Brookings Institution Press, 2014). In 2001, he helped develop and launch the UK’s network of climate diplomats. David lives in and works from Pisa, Italy. View all posts More from Global Dashboard Let’s make climate a culture war! by Alex Evans | Sep 29, 2021If the politics of climate change end up polarised, is that so bad? No – it’s disastrous. Or so I’ve long thought. Look at the US – where climate is even more polarised than abortion. Result: decades of flip flopping. Ambition under Clinton; reversal... Uncertainty and Humanitarian Action: What Donald Rumsfeld can teach us by Marc DuBois, Marzia Montemurro | Jan 13, 2021Since its onset, one striking feature of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has been the narrative power of its novelty. This global narrative depicts COVID-19 pushing humanity towards a ‘historical divide’ of BC and AC (before and after COVID-19), where unknown,... Big Elephants and Small Islands: getting beyond the New Aid Orthodoxy by Robin Perry, Sarah Phillips, Carmeneza Dos Santos Monteiro, Edward Cavanough | Mar 29, 2021Official development assistance (ODA) – or aid – is a small but conspicuous pillar of the international order, and its frailties are being exposed by COVID as surely as those of the other foundations of this order. The assumptions underpinning aid and its management... Email us here 2021 Global Dashboard – Blog covering International affairs and global risks FollowFollowFollowFollow