Comments on: 'What You Need to Know About Energy'

By: Vote for the Webby Science Award | The Intersection | Discover Magazine

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 19:32:56 +0000

[...] January, I told you about a terrific new website from the National Academies called What You Need to Know About [...]

By: Pete

Pete — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 04:52:57 +0000

@Eric,
Yes she did. Thanks Sheril!

By: Eric the Leaf

Eric the Leaf — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 03:59:11 +0000

Sheril,
You did not answer Pete’s question. But GM was on target.

By: Sheril Kirshenbaum

Sheril Kirshenbaum — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 02:19:12 +0000

@2 Pete,
Peak oil is a controversial topic. US oil peaked ~1971, but the world’s production peak is debated.

By: Eric the Leaf

Eric the Leaf — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:06:06 +0000

What GM said. Very poor website.

By: GM

GM — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:35:39 +0000

If you’re asking “When will/did it occur?”, then you probably know what it means… but if you don’t, it’s the point in time at which the worldwide oil production reaches its highest ever point after which it starts declining. World oil production has been essentially flat since 2005, although the highest ever production was in August 2008 (by very little above 2005 levels though) so many people think that we have passed it. Which is a problem because it takes decades to rebuild the infrastructure around any alternative energy source, and there is actually no such source

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:19:29 +0000

Speaking of peak oil, what does that term mean? When will/did it occur?

By: GM

GM — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:56:00 +0000

I see they have a section called “Emerging technologies” and it has hydrogen, oil shales, and biofuels in it. In the same time there is not a word about EROEI (Eenergy Return Of Energy Investment) or even Peak Oil.

Which immediately means that the authors of that site are either ignorant of energy themselves or they purposefully lying

Either case, the whole thing becomes a source of misinformation so why are you promoting it?