I went to the Haringey Independent Cinema last night. They screened the End of Suburbia, a documentary based on the impact of peak oil on the US way of life.
No one else there questioned its assumptions, which was a little disappointing. I don't want to get into the arguments for and against so much (there's a debate at anarkismo http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=2672, and Greg Palast did a short but sweet refutation in his last book) - the thing I find worrying is the psychology behind its promotion. There seems to be a slight element of glee (the end of the world is nigh!) but more than that it's based on fear and and individualisation of the issue. It's all going to come crashing down because you've been greedy.
It reminds me of a couple of things - 80s style survivalists, and a crude marxist inevitable collapse of capitalism outlook.
One problem is that if you push the idea that we're running out of oil and civilisation will collapse, the moment someone says ok, we'll transfer to a more stable energy source (coal or nuclear) then the panic's over.
Also, the only time structural issues get mentioned, it's vague stuff about the oil companies being bad. Except none of them mention that the original Peak Oil paper was produced for Shell, or that it might be in the interests of oil companies to understate available oil.
I'm not dissing HIC by the way, it's a great local initiative.
Yeah, peak oil obsessives just seem like those catastrophists. As if capital will let something like that happen. There may be some "problems" but I don't think there's going to be any huge disasters...