Matt Simmons RIP

snow hope · Post by **snow hope** » 09 Aug 2010, 22:23

This is very sad and shocking news indeed. It certainly seems strange, as he seemed fit and well, in the many broadcasts he made over the last few weeks. In fact, when was his last interview?

Did he die in his sleep?
Did he drown? In his pool?

I have been waiting to hear what he was going to say next after going out on such a limb and being so upfront on his allegations of what was going on. But he had seemed to go quiet over the last few days.

Something just doesn't seem right about this....

It is a big loss to the Peak Oil message as Matt was forthright and up-front about the problem. He had the status and acumen to make people listen, despite his latest thoughts.

RIP Matt.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 09 Aug 2010, 22:53

Sad news indeed.

Andy Hunt wrote:First Ali Samsam Bakhtiari,

There were some very unanswered questions left by Bakhtiari's death.

Lord Beria3 · Post by **Lord Beria3** » 09 Aug 2010, 22:59

Sad that Matt has gone, he did some great work in regard to Peak Oil.

Regarding his recent statesments, they were certainly odd, and i felt were damaging to his hardwon reputation.

Regarding conspiracy theories, i really doubt that there is a secret agency bumping of peak oilsters, its a message most people don't want to here and ridicule is a more effective way than assassination.

David kelly, now that is a different matter

Best wishes to the Simmon family.

Kieran · Post by **Kieran** » 09 Aug 2010, 23:33

MacG wrote:
Kieran wrote:
Andy Hunt wrote:I met him once. First Ali Samsam Bakhtiari, now Matt Simmons. Colin Campbell next?

[/conspiracy]
Exactly what I was thinking. Once is chance, twice is coincidence, third time is a pattern...
And by now you might start to suspect that even YOU are targeted. Together with your entire family. Hehehe... That's what happen when time pass by. We get older and finally we die from old age. Nobody has escaped as far as I know.

Mock all you want MacG, for all we know everyone on this board could be targeted for liquidation

mobbsey · Post by **mobbsey** » 10 Aug 2010, 06:01

This is all just a scare story.

Provided we can get sufficient investment in place in time then we're certain to be able to maintain life functions at higher levels than at present in order to meet future demand. The apparent cessation of life function is merely an interruption of the price signals within the bodily market, and once we've implemented new and improved methods of sustaining the supply of life then he will be able to continue to function as normal.

OK, I jest, but it's an interesting take to view the anti-peak arguments as nothing more than a wishful Frankenstein's monster

The Wall Street Journal is positively crowing that it's the end of peak oil:
http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2010/08/09/w ... ll-peaked/

I met Simmons in Edinburgh in '05 and like of lot of the leading "peak oil types" he was a jolly guy. The theory survived the death of Hubbert in 1989, and despite the WSJ's wishful thinking I'm sure it'll continue on in part thanks to Simmon's irascible promotion of the problem.

Alex1971 · Post by **Alex1971** » 10 Aug 2010, 09:38

My God!!

jonny2mad · Post by **jonny2mad** » 10 Aug 2010, 10:03

mobbsey did you read the reply from scott to that Wall Street Journal article, pretty much stated the level of our problem its below the main article in comments

mobbsey · Post by **mobbsey** » 10 Aug 2010, 10:26

jonny2mad wrote:mobbsey did you read the reply from scott to that Wall Street Journal article, pretty much stated the level of our problem its below the main article in comments

Interesting -- but personally I prefer the the disembodied factoid that annual oil production is over one cubic mile per year!

Simmons et. al. are going to be the Banquo's ghosts of the oil industry -- when it all goes pear-shaped all those execs at CERA/IEA and their acolytes will have the words of Simmins, Bakhtiari, and of course Hubbert himself (read his Congressional testimony from '77 -- still spot on today), haunting them as they try and explain their way out of how they managed to "get it so wrong".

As Simmons said, oil resources are the 'elephant in the room'; personally the problem with having an elephant in the room isn't the elephant, it's the completely delusional idiots who agree not to see it.

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 12 Aug 2010, 10:50

Lord Beria3 wrote:
Regarding conspiracy theories, i really doubt that there is a secret agency bumping of peak oilsters, its a message most people don't want to here and ridicule is a more effective way than assassination.

Bumping off outspoken troublemakers is a pretty effective way of shutting up the people who are still alive.

I'm not saying I think Simmons was bumped off, but I wouldn't necessarily rule it out. I'm not clear why other PSers feel what he said about BP was so "off the wall". So he said there was a cover-up - well, cover-ups do happen.

extractorfan · Post by **extractorfan** » 12 Aug 2010, 11:21

Ludwig wrote:I'm not saying I think Simmons was bumped off, but I wouldn't necessarily rule it out. I'm not clear why other PSers feel what he said about BP was so "off the wall". So he said there was a cover-up - well, cover-ups do happen.

I think it was more to do with him saying the spill should be "nuked" and some technical things about methane not being correct.

jonny2mad · Post by **jonny2mad** » 13 Aug 2010, 09:42

http://www.project.nsearch.com/video/th ... ebookshare

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 13 Aug 2010, 11:49

jonny2mad wrote:http://www.project.nsearch.com/video/th ... ebookshare

Well, having watched that, I think there's a good chance he was bumped off. Whether some of the things he was saying were inaccurate doesn't to me seem relevant - if he's telling the basic truth about the oil leak (and whatever people say, he knows what he's talking about), then there's no way BP and the US government could allow him to keep talking.

Post by **clv101** » 13 Aug 2010, 11:57

In the last few weeks of his life Matt Simmons said some ridiculous things, totally nonsensical, just listen to what he's said in that interview. The mainstream media were just an ignorant mouthpiece for a confused man. I don't think we need to disrespect his memory by entertaining conspiracies about his death.

Ludwig · Post by **Ludwig** » 13 Aug 2010, 12:22

clv101 wrote:In the last few weeks of his life Matt Simmons said some ridiculous things, totally nonsensical, just listen to what he's said in that interview. The mainstream media were just an ignorant mouthpiece for a confused man. I don't think we need to disrespect his memory by entertaining conspiracies about his death.

Can you be specific as to what he said that was nonsensical? Is his argument that a nuclear device could solve the problem so totally ridiculous? I'm willing to be persuaded either way, but I do wonder if the mere word "nuclear" rings alarm bells with some people, to the extent that they don't actually listen to the substance of what's being said.

I'm not disrespecting his memory. It's possible his death was natural, but given his recent statements, there seems to me a fair chance that it wasn't. If you don't think anyone ever gets bumped off for voicing inconvenient truths, then with respect, I think you are naive.

Post by **clv101** » 13 Aug 2010, 12:38

Ludwig wrote:
clv101 wrote:In the last few weeks of his life Matt Simmons said some ridiculous things, totally nonsensical, just listen to what he's said in that interview. The mainstream media were just an ignorant mouthpiece for a confused man. I don't think we need to disrespect his memory by entertaining conspiracies about his death.
Can you be specific as to what he said that was nonsensical

We addressed his recent claims here:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/6789