Robert Peston - Hooray for cheap oil

[3rdRock]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30273896

I am not sure what the opposite of red lights flashing on the dashboard would be (maybe you won't want to get in a car with me), but whatever that might be, it's happening now.

Or to put it another way, there is something positive going on for most of the world's people - which is that the remarkable fall in oil prices is continuing.

[emordnilap]

Oh dear.

He usually comes across as a bit sensible.

[Tarrel]

Bloomin' eck! Is it just me turning into a grumpy old git, or are politicians AND journalists ACTUALLY getting thicker as time moves on?

..Or is it a conspiracy to keep playing the happy tunes on the deck while the Titanic sinks?

..Or is it some form of collective, society-wide act of denial, led and/or reflected by the media?

Still, at least we'll all be able to afford to run our cars on those £15 billion worth of roads that are going to be built.

[3rdRock]

All together now ..... Abide With Me ........

[Little John]

Within the constraints of the current system and current urban population levels and current complexity of servicing the daily needs of that population, there is no alternative to playing the same tired old tune while the ship sinks, right up to the point where it disappears irrevocably below the waterline. Only then will people ask the really critical questions and only then will they realise that they are too late. This problem is not one confined to the MSM culture either. It is also true on places like this. So what chance is there that the mainstream culture will do what is necessary. The answer is no chance.

Societal collapse, political extremism, civil unrest and eventual global war are all pretty much inevitable.

[emordnilap]

This problem is not one confined to the MSM culture either. It is also true on places like this.

Guilty as charged.

[...]civil unrest [...] are all pretty much inevitable.

I wish. That alone would be a step in the right direction. There again, Iraq, Mark Duggan, Ferguson...what good has it done?

[3rdRock]

Societal collapse, political extremism, civil unrest and eventual global war are all pretty much inevitable.

So you're quite optimistic about the future then Steve?

[Tarrel]

Societal collapse, political extremism, civil unrest and eventual global war are all pretty much inevitable.

So you're quite optimistic about the future then Steve?

Put it down to the weather.

[3rdRock]

Societal collapse, political extremism, civil unrest and eventual global war are all pretty much inevitable.

So you're quite optimistic about the future then Steve?

Put it down to the weather.

Possibly. We all need some more light in our lives.

http://www.sad.org.uk/

Flippancy apart, Steve is quite right in his assessment of mankind's future prospects.

I'm glad I'm in my sixties.

[Tarrel]

So you're quite optimistic about the future then Steve?

Put it down to the weather.

Possibly. We all need some more light in our lives.

http://www.sad.org.uk/

Flippancy apart, Steve is quite right in his assessment of mankind's future prospects.

I'm glad I'm in my sixties.

Sadly I agree.

In bad weather I spend more time indoors, inadvertantly exposing myself to the news agenda. In better weather I spend time outdoors and forget all about it. It does have to be pretty bad to keep me in! (Increasingly so).

[madibe]

Newsnight covering it... hohum

[madibe]

Ah, well that covered it in 5 minutes. Peak Oil is "Dead" according to the expert (missed his name). We keep finding new resources, apparently. And we are now moving away from oil consumption to power our lives.

But whatever, oil is abundant and peak oil theorists have it completely wrong as fracking and new discoveries are far outweighing demand. Forever.

I am so relieved. Phew.

[Snail]

For me, 2014 was the year I turned MSM off. Hyped up helicopter crashes, Royals, virtually ignoring MP being beaten up, Snowden, Scotland, child-like political/economic programmes, the reporting of all these 'terrorists', Ukraine, economy big and strong now, plane crash, Cliff Richard and similar rich/powerful coverups, Russia (have I missed any out etc..). I'm sick of it.

UK mainstream media is utterly discredited in my eyes. It's more than just not believing everything I hear, or taking biases into account. It's just now irrelevant. It's repeated bad behaviour has made me simply disregard it.

[kenneal - lagger]

The environment is doing pretty well at the moment, all things considered. The low oil price is likely to bankrupt most of the tar sands oilcos so that mucky stuff will be drastically reduced in output. Fracked oil is also pretty marginal. so peak oil could be on it's way back.

Austerity is taking money out of the hands of people who spend it on stuff and putting it into the hands of people who spend it on financial derivatives, the stock market (less so) and property bubbles. So industrial output will drop and hence energy consumption.

Hopefully the lack of industrial output will break the system before conventional oil starts to get very short and the oil price goes back up enough to stimulate more fracking and tar sands oil. Once the system breaks fossil fuel and industrial production will plummet, taking CO2 output with it.

Am I too much of an environmental optimist?

[3rdRock]

For me, 2014 was the year I turned MSM off.

Here's another good reason to abandon the tabloids:

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/d ... gel-farage

Ukip leadership to meet with Richard Desmond and Express executives

Express Newspapers owner said to be closer to giving his titles’ support to Nigel Farage’s party before 2015 general election

“Desmond thinks backing Ukip will be good for the papers commercially,” said one insider. “The word is that Farage has offered him a peerage if it all works out, and this, even more than money and the respect of London’s Jewish community, is what he craves now.”