Will we hit Peak Oil or Climate Change be our biggest problem in 40 years?

The effects of oil production and climate change will be very different because oil is already tied to economics and climate change is not.

We will not feel hitting some theoretical "peak" or zenith in oil production as a limit on available energy; we will feel it as an ongoing increase in the price of oil. It has little to do with increasing the amount of drilling in American fields. What many people don't understand is that all oil is bought and sold on the international market. The the oil in fields available on American soil is a small portion of the world's supply and will never be close to what is necessary to fulfull the increasing internation demand. We can choose to allow BP to create as many wells in the Gulf as they choose, but if China is willing to pay more than Americans, that oil goes to China and Americans pay the price increase just like the rest of the world.

The next oil crisis is not likely to be due to peak production capabilities but to political unrest OPEC nations as we are seeing right now. The continuing gains by Moslem extremists and the destruction they are willing to cause, paired with the world's undiversified use of oil for energy puts the entire world's economy at great risk. Fear not "peak oil", fear political unrest and the very real possibility that much of the available oil is controlled by anti-capitalistic religious extemists and/or communists (Venezuela). The income inequities in Saudia Arabia are likely to at some point explode into a battle against the Wahhabism that first put the Sauds in power and now feel betrayed. Gas prices have increase by 6% or so in just the past week because of Egypt and Lybia -- what would you expect the effect to be in the case of a religious revolution in Saudia Arabia?

Climate Change on the other hand is not tied at all to economics in an interactive way. That is, nobody has to pay for the environmental damage they cause. We (our kids) will pay for climate change separately through massive new invenstments in physical infrastructure to adapt to the rapidly changing climate, sea level and food production factors.

In the next generation, countries with good science education such as Finland will succeed at the expense of educational laggarts such as the U.S. as they will have diversified their energy sources.

Weren't we supposed to have hit peak oil during the late 70's? Of course global *cooling* was a topic of conversation back then as well. Apparently "Global Warming" was the most accurate term either. So now the environmentals changed it up, and now it's "Climate Change" way to cover your collective asses chaps.

But to answer the question. Oil will be an issue in the next 40 years. Climate change, not as much. Even if you are believer in climate change, it'll take a couple hundred years for anything monumental to happen.

It is strange that most alarmists also buy into to Peak Oil perhaps so they can argue against their satan which is fossil fuel. In fact, Peak Oil has been predicted since the 1890s. Since then, reserves have increased, not decreased. There is a finite limit to the oil but I think we are nowhere near it. The easiest fields have been found and exploited but our technology and knowledge marches on. Hopefully we will find other alternatives long before we begin to run out. I am optimistic that we will. I don't think there is a crisis for warming or oil. We do have a crisis in leadership and we need to throw out those who won't let us use what we have.

Note: Paula pathetically predicted: <<<1) Each year the amount of CO2 released in the atmosphere increases.2) Each year the RATE at which the earth warms increases.>>>

How ridiculous. Where is this increased rate? It is clear that there hasn't been increased rate of warming in spite of pathetic attempts to manufacture it. In fact, warming has dramatically slowed over the last decade as CO2 increased. I realize these people are challenged in science and math but I just can't let such a ignorant argument go unchallenged.

Bacheous mentioned price. What he didn't mention is that reserves are based on current price. As price goes up, reserves go up and I mean way up. A reserve is a known or proven field that can be economically extracted with today's technology.

There is a very large supply of oil that is just hard to get at. In the future, technology may make it much easier.

There is enough coal to run the world for a 1000 years, and the United States has the most of it. Of course we don't want to use it, it would be bad for China. The United States also has the largest reserves of shale oil. We are not allowed to use it. A cheap abundant supply of energy would be bad.

Ottowa, Good call, People hardly realize that the biggest threat to life is not nature, but man. The average deaths per year caused by war with those types of problems you have talked about, so far exceed the number of deaths by natural disaster, that natural disasters are not even worht mentioning.

The number off death from car wrecks in the US in one year is close to the number of deaths caused by natural disasters in the entire world in one year. This is why the govt is so quick to pass laws on the auto industry. The number of deaths caused by war exceeds the number of deaths caused by car accidents. Looking at the real cause of famines in the world and you will always find a ruthless dictator keeping the food from the people.

The warmers feel the need to perform their scare-mongering and frightening people into increasing the size of the govt, when the truth is that the biggest threat to freedom and life has always been a govt that holds too much power and control.

Well if we start drilling then peak oil will not be a problem for 200 years. The climate will always change so that will always be a problem but not a big one.

Both.

Not a year goes by that some new oilfield, or gas reserve or coal mine comes into production.

That has 2 effects:

1) Each year the amount of CO2 released in the atmosphere increases.

2) Each year the RATE at which the earth warms increases.

We are still in early days of global warming.

In 40 years from now our planet will be warmer than it is now (with consequent loss of "permanently" frozen ice).

There will be no permanent ice anywhere on earth except Greenland and Antarctica, and even those will be fast reducing in size.

The entire Arctic Ocean will have ceased having permanent ice. Hey it will be a boom time every summer for eco-tours through Hudson Bay and to the islands beyond.

By then global sea level will have risen to an appreciable extent above its present level.

and,

there will be an annual increase in sea level of a size that will be easily measured and seen.

By then the global warming debate will be changing.

from

"Is global warming real?"

to

"How do we stop global warming"

We will always have deniers, but by then they will be viewed as an oddity,

much like flat-earthists are viewed today.

Neither. Like in the past and in the present, how humans run the world will likely be the biggest problem.

And before anyone calls me an Obama basher or Steven Harper hater, I'm talking about non-democracies, dictatorships, religious rule, socialsim and communism. That's where the real troubles lay.

Peak oil is fear-mongering bovine excrement. There's lots of oil, more oil than we've ever had access to before, and the biggest recent find is in the United States and Canada.

If any one young enough with a few bucks could answer you, he would put his money on the winner,and retire in thirty years wealthy. You would have a better chance of predicting the winner of the Super Bowl in 2051.