110 Days Ago Michael Lardelli Asked, "Does an Approaching Peak of Oil and Gas Production Presage a National Emergency?" (August 18, 2004)

    On April 30 TFW published a Viewpoint by Adelaide University bioscientist Michael Lardelli posing the question, "Could there be a greater, more immediate threat to our technological civilisation than global warming?" and answered, "There is, and it is known to its proponents as the 'oil peak' or 'peak oil'. Ironically, just as the burning of fossil fuels threatens to change our climate, an insufficient supply of oil and gas may be the Achilles' heel of our technological way of life."

Since then with the price of crude oil approaching $50 per barrel the mass media have given increasing time and space to analysing the consequences not only of the "oil peak" but also the perception of the possibility. Now (April 16) the ABC has allotted Dr. Lardelli some five minutes to put his assessment to air on Perspective or .

He opens with, "In 1956 a respected geophysicist, Dr M. King Hubbert, made the then outrageous prediction that oil production in the US would peak in 1970 and then slowly decline. He was mocked, not least in 1970 when oil production reached its highest levels ever. However, a few years later Hubbert had been vindicated. 1970 was seen as the best year ever for oil production in the US and it has since dropped by more than half."