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Biography: Chris Rhodes. www.fresh-lands.com Professor
Chris Rhodes is a writer, speaker and researcher who became involved with
environmental issues while working in Russia during the aftermath...
Dr Richard Pike (1950-2011) and Peak Oil.
9 Sep, 2011 09:33 am
Dr Richard Pike, former CEO of the Royal Society of Chemistry, has died of cancer. He had worked for B.P. and in his opinion there was maybe twice as much crude oil in reserve than is normally considered. However, peak oil is an inevitability and the provision of oil must fail demand for it, irrespective of its ultimately recoverable quantity.
Dr Richard Pike, the CEO of the Royal Society of Chemistry has died of
cancer. He was a forceful ambassador for British Science and represented
the subject of chemistry and its importance in providing a means for
the fabrication of new materials and solving environmental problems,
especially providing clean water across the globe. He and I disagreed
about the nature of "Peak Oil": in his opinion, as a former oil-man
working for B.P., the estimates of proven oil reserves were low by a
factor of 2 according to whether a P90 or P50 analysis was used, while
my contention is that no matter how much oil may lie under the Earth's
surface, if it cannot be extracted fast enough to meet current (and
relentlessly growing) use, there will be a gap in supply and demand for
it, with catastrophic consequences for a global civilization based on
crude oil to provide for transportation, chemical and pharmaceutical
manufacture and food-production. An ultimate peak in oil production is
an inevitable consequence of a finite resource, and the gap will be
sharply enlarged when it transpires. Crude oil, or its substitutes, will
be produced for decades, but at an increasingly expensive tariff, both
in terms of cost and energy, as it is sourced in the form of a heavy,
sour (high-sulphur) material, or in synthetic form from tar-sands, shale
and coal. The term "peak oil" really means the precipice of cheap oil,
and all that depends upon it.
Resquiecat in Pace.
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- “Peak Oil” is Nonsense… Because There’s Enough Gas to Last 250 Years.
- Threat of Population Surge to "10 Billion" Espoused in London Theatre.
- Current Commentary: Energy from Nuclear Fusion – Realities, Prospects and Fantasies?
- Shaky Foundations for Offshore Wind Farms
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