Mr Speaker

I've really been slack at preparing for the oil-drought fuelled end-of-the-world. Work and all you know. But what with oil prices getting up over $60 a barrel, I figure its time to have another look around at what's going down in the peak oil circles. (You know what... I'm upgrading my concern levels over peak oil. I'm making it a proper noun. Peak Oil. That'll give it some authority for sure.)

One thing I noticed is that Peak Oil is getting heaps more air time (or pixel time, at least). When I'd consult my primary sources on Peak Oil in March, the articles where spaced out every 5 or six days. 20 hours ago... 5 days ago.... 2 weeks ago.... and so on. Nooow however, they are pouring in at a rate of more than one a day! Holy Moly!

Perhaps now that everyone's talking about it I should take the "pfft, that's old news" stance, or the "yeah, I used to be worried about Peak Oil, but I'm over that now". I should at least make some kind of novelty t-shirt to sell. Perhaps I can get funding for my Unified Theory of Peak Oil Coverage. It's outlined in this graph:

It is interesting to note that today just happens to be the day that coverage, oil supply, and visitors to this website are all aligned. I've yet to determine the ramifications of such an event. I'm fairly sure it's directly related to the Saturn, Venus and Mercury alignment¹ and am currently trying to work out which planet represents Mr Speaker visitors. At any rate, I've decided the occasion should be marked with a glass of wine and a handful of "Bake".

Unlike Peak Oil, Mr Speaker's "Peak Coverage" can easily be identified as the day when they do a special about it on Today Tonight. Coverage is certain to be in a state of decline from this point on.

Of course, $60 barrels of fuel doesn't necessarily mean Peak Oil is going to come and steal your TVs. BBC gives you a whole stack of reasons for high oil prices, none of which include the "maybe there's none left" line. But it is worrying when an oil baron like T. Boone Pickens says stuff like "84 million barrels a day times 365 days is 30 billion barrels of oil a year that we're depleting. All of the world's [oil] industry doesn't even come close to replacing 30 billion barrels of oil. We don't spend enough money to even give ourselves a chance to replace 30 billion barrels. It may be because the prospects are not there. I rather imagine that's what the answer is to that." (And heaps more equally fuel-less stuff too).

Anyway, that's enough Peak Oil for this quarter. I'll take another squiz when we hit $75 barrel, or when it's made into a big budget movie: "Peak.... OIL" That sounds pretty good. I can't wait to see who gets to play M. King Hubbert.

¹Mr Speaker has very little interest in astronomy, or astrology and does not believe that some planets getting in a line will directly affect viewership.