PEAK PEAK: PEAK THEORY HAS JUMPED THE SHARK ...

... but, believe me, that doesn't mean scientists won't continue to use it to try to scare the hell out of our children by teaching about the next "crisis which will destroy life as we know it and leave the Earth itself hanging in the balance."

From the Guardian:

First there was peak oil. Then came peak wood and peak gas. What is it with all these peaks ? Is the world really running out of the raw materials it needs to make it tick, move and communicate? Or should the next peak be in stories about peaks?

Attributed to American geophysicist M King Hubbert, peak theory assumes that resource production follows a bell-shaped curve. Early on, the production rate increases as discoveries are made and infrastructure built. Later in the curve, after the eponymous Hubbert's peak, production declines as reserves run dry. US oil production reached its Hubbert's peak in the early 70s and has declined since. But what about the rest?

Peak oil and gas Every schoolchild is taught that world supplies will eventually run out. But when? Supporters and critics of global peak oil theory argue about the timing of the peak, with some insisting it has already been reached. Reliable, independent estimates of discoveries and production are rare, and most governments rely on statistics from the International Energy Agency, which has long been accused of painting too rosy a picture.

We've debunked this numerous times at the Astute Bloggers. Within the past few years, it has been proven that America has four times the oil of Saudi Arabia just within Colorado, Montana, and the Dakotas. Additionally, it has been proven that oil is a naturally-occurring substance.

Those two facts destroy peak oil theory.

But wait, there's more.

Peak water There is a serious academic school of thought that says the Earth's water was delivered from outer space on the back of wet asteroids and comets. But there is growing concern that the water is running dry. As Alex Bell describes in his book Peak Water, we are using more water than is available in the places where we live. For some, in the wet regions, peak water will never occur, but for the people of the US, Africa, southern Europe, India, Middle East and China, he says, it is already here."

I can't stop laughing. Why just two weeks ago, I predicted this would be

THE NEXT ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS THAT THREATENS LIFE ON EARTH

... all of this rests on the completely unscientific, false assumption that once you use the water it disappears.

Water does not disappear. It changes form. When you cook, water evaporates ... and then comes back down to earth in the form of rainfall, dew, etc.

When you irrigate crops, water evaporate and/or get transferred into the plants, where it is stored, and consequently ends up in the digestive systems of human beings and animals.

When you drink water, or ingest anything which has water in it - which is everything - it goes through your system, and comes out as urine which contains, get this, WATER.

Which then evaporates, and comes down in the form of rainfall, dew, etc.

And, of course, this "we're running out of water and we must do something about it right now" scenario also rests on the assumption that we will develop no new technology which will help us harvest water.

No new Desalination technology.

No new Cloud Seeding technology.

Why does this need to be explained? Because Chicken Little demands it with his asinine ranting:

And, if you don't believe me that Peak Water Theory is a completely absurd idea, now these idiots are even arguing that human creativity is subject to Peak Theory:

Peak rock music Most of the good musical ideas really have been used up. Last year, popular culture blog Overthinking It analysed Rolling Stone magazine's top 500 songs of all time, and found that rock music peaked in the late 1960s. "It would seem that, like oil, the supply of great musical ideas is finite. The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Motown greats and other genre innovators quickly extracted the best their respective genres had to offer, leaving little supply for future musicians."

The reason Rolling Stone picks all those old albums as the top 500 of all time is because THE WRITERS AND EDITORS OF ROLLING STONE ARE REALLY FRIGGIN' OLD.

The 80's gave us Jane's Addiction, U2, INXS, Bauhaus, REM, The Cure, etc.

The 90's gave us Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Portishead, Jeff Buckley, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Soundgarden, etc.

And, the 2K decade has given us Green Day, The BellRays, The White Stripes, Eminem, Incubus, The Black Keys, Buckcherry, Disturbed, Death Cab for Cutie, The Black Eyed Peas, etc.

But, of course, old people always think old stuff is better than new stuff, so they completely ignore what new discoveries.

You know what is subject to Peak Theory; the friggin' Hippie Generation that gave birth to all this Peak Theory, environmentalist, socialism-in-green-disguise b.s.

Good riddance to the Hippie Generation. Don't let the Death Panel door hit you in the ass on your way out.

THE NEXT ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS THAT THREATENS LIFE ON EARTH: CO2? AGW? NITROGEN? NO: H2O!

M. Simon at Power and Control has discovered a group of scientists vying to be the leaders of the next "Crisis" movement:

An international group of scientists say there is an immediate need for a global assessment of the nitrogen cycle and its impact on climate.

On a planetary scale, human activities, especially fertiliser application, have more than doubled the amount of reactive nitrogen in circulation on land. This massive alteration of the nitrogen cycle affects climate, food security, energy security, human health and ecosystem health. The long-term consequences of these changes are yet to be fully realised, but the human impact on the nitrogen cycle has so far been largely missed in international environmental assessments.

Nitrogen's role in climate change will be highlighted at an event on 7 December at the COP-15 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Event organisers will be calling for a new assessment of nitrogen and climate, which will identify innovative nitrogen management strategies for global climate change mitigation and associated co-benefits to society.

Dr Cheryl Palm, the chair of the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI), which is organising the event, said "Nitrogen and climate interactions are not yet adequately included in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment process.

This maneuver is not going to work, in my opinion, because it is not just the CO2 Global Warming model that is currently being discredited, but it is the very notion of Anthropogenic Global Warming itself which is unravelling.

The public will no longer trust "Climate Change" scientists.

The public will no longer buy any Climate Change argument.

People have a visceral hatred for Chicken Little bullshit. And, they do not want to be taken in again and again by the same "sky is falling" routine.

However, that does NOT mean the public will not buy another line of Chicken Little b.s.

We have seen this time and time again.

The reason the public will buy into crisis scenarios again and again is,

1) crisis gets our adrenalin rushing, and that is pleasurable for humans

2) crisis gives us a sense of purpose, especially when we are told we can do something about the crisis IF WE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW!

And, politicians know it because they have played on our passions over and over.

So, what will the next crisis be?

Water.

WE''RE RUNNING OUT OF WATER, AND IF WE DO NOT TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION ALL LIFE WILL BE OBLITERATED, AND THE EARTH ITSELF WILL HANG IN THE BALANCE:

Will Water Footprints be the Next "Energy Star"?

Like their cousin the carbon footprint, water footprints are one of the latest methods scientists and policy makers are using to assess humanity's impact on the planet. And now businesses are starting to use water footprinting as well.

A water footprint measures the total amount of water it takes for a company to manufacture and transport a product, or for a city, country, or business to operate.

Calculating water footprints can help businesses and communities better understand and prepare for the impacts of global water scarcity, according to experts.

Exceptionally water-intensive products and food items include beef, coffee, and cotton. For example 2 pounds (1 kilogram) of beef requires 4,227 gallons (16,000 liters) of water to produce, once you consider the water needed to grow feed and process the meat, according to WFN. Likewise, 776 gallons (2,900 liters) of water is needed to make a cotton shirt.

Applying a standard to water footprinting is crucial, said Stuart Orr, WWFs freshwater-footprint manager. That's because the complex ecological analysis, which involves identifying and measuring multiple water inputs, is "confusing everybody right now," he said.

But, footprinting represents the best tool for reducing water demand in already severely water-stressed countries that will have to support some 3 billion people by 2025.

"We cant screw this up," he added. "There is no Plan B with water. Lets be clear about that."

The U.S. has the biggest water footprint per capita, at 766,098 gallons (2.9 million liters) per person each year, according to WFN.

Of course, the United States, the world's most successful country, is the biggest abuser. Of course. Because Capitalism is the problem, you see. Therefore, Capitalism will have to be attacked, and destroyed, or else we will run out of water, everyone and everything will die, and earth itself ... well, you get the drill.

And all of this rests on the completely unscientific, false assumption that once you use the water it disappears.

Water does not disappear. It changes form. When you cook, water evaporates ... and then comes back down to earth in the form of rainfall, dew, etc.

When you irrigate crops, water evaporate and/or get transferred into the plants, where it is stored, and consequently ends up in the digestive systems of human beings and animals.

When you drink water, or ingest anything which has water in it - which is everything - it goes through your system, and comes out as urine which contains, get this, WATER.

Which then evaporates, and comes down in the form of rainfall, dew, etc.

And, of course, this "we're running out of water and we must do something about it right now" scenario also rests on the assumption that we will develop no new technology which will help us harvest water.

No new Desalination technology.

No new Cloud Seeding technology.

Why does this need to be explained? Because Chicken Little demands it with his asinine ranting:



So yes, WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF WATER, AND IF WE DON'T DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT RIGHT NOW, ALL LIFE WILL BE OBLITERATED, AND THE EARTH, ITSELF, WILL HANG IN THE BALANCE.

So the government must intervene and enact socialist/fascist legislation to make sure you no longer drink coffee, eat beef, or where cotton t-shirts.

You heard it her first, folks.

Check back somewhere down the road, and you will find us bragging about having scooped the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Hadley Water Research Unit, The Federal Government of the United States, Instapundit, etc., by years and years.