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The concept of global warming is a lot more politically tenable than saying we have used up half our oil and growth is over. Global warming is something the whole world can work together on (hypothetically). Peak Oil, is more choosing sides geopolitically. I expect global warming will morph from politically annoying to a politically expedient in the years ahead.
Since the answer to both global warming and Peak Oil is less consumption, the political juggernauts will find global warming a much more reasonable rationale for recommending( requiring?) curfews, odd/even driving days, rationing coupons, etc for fossil fuels than telling the straight truth about depletion (that would be too real and scary)
I expect there will eventually be policies under the guise of mitigating climate change that are really driven by energy constraints.
Nate,
Although I agree that the correct responses to Peak Oil & Gas can fulfill the concerns of “warmers”, I do not subscribe that idea of “lying” to the folk. We should, and can, work together for a better world, but let’s not do that on the basis of falsity and dishonest intellect.
Well, it's not entirely a lie.
But it would be better to try and steer the GW activists towards campaigning for coal reduction, while telling the public that oil reduction is the cure. Two birds, and all that.
Maybe?
When a person involved in the oil industry lies he/she is merely behaving in a natural manner for that industry. The oil industry is not well known for either its honesty or its great concern for the environment.
Nor, for that matter, is the oil industry very well known for its humanitarianism. The oil industry has committed so many crimes against humanity that oil is always tinged with blood.
Peak Oil is a good thing specifically because it will drive the oil industry out of existence. My only regret is that the Earth possessed oil, not that the Earth will run out of oil.
I think that a carbon tax, based on the carbon content of the fuel, mitigates both peak oil and global warming; it encourages fossil fuel conservation overall, but taxes coal more heavily than oil, and oil more heavily than natural gas, which sends the right economic signals for lessening global warming impacts, too. If coupled with a payroll tax reduction, as I recall Al Gore proposed, it encourages replacing fossil fuel inputs in the economy with labor inputs, which is good peak oil prep as well.