Any truth to the rumor the Repulican platform is going to call for the resumption of whaling as the key to both their energy and job stimulus plans?

McCain/Ahab 2008

That just wouldn't work. There's no one that we could invade to assure a continued supply of whale oil.

I was thinking maybe Japan. They must be hoarding a strategic whale oil reserve.

Comparisons between peak oil and the transition off whale oil are interesting (and discussed at length in Peter Terzekian's book "A Thousand Barrels a Second") but, ultimately, they provide a false comfort, like that saying that "The Stone Age didn't end for lack of stones."

Because there were good alternatives available in abundance, the decline in whale slaughter had little impact except on whaling communities. As the whales got harder to find, the amount of energy required to land them went up --- the energy return on energy invested went down, in other words. The result is that the price had to keep climbing. If there's a replacement handy, then it comes in.

But there doesn't seem to be a replacement for oil -- nothing provides its stability, energy density, ease of storage, use, and distribution, and versatility. Coal to liquids means global suicide and a fried planet.

Nice video meditation on our predicament

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkMfohB2Gtw

Coal to liquids means global suicide and a fried planet.

Well, I guess we can stop all research on coal gasification/liquefaction based on that pronouncement.

What, pray, do you suggest, George...

...higher tire pressures?

Lay off the bananas.

Excellent video link George!

What do you think, Cheetah? Do you think that we're entitled to use all the fossil energy we want without consequences because we want it to be so? If wishes were horses ...