http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/05/22/does-increasing-fuel-efficiency-make-people-drive-more/

As the article says though, at some point no matter how cheap the gas is people refuse to spend any more time in traffic.

I’m tellin’ ya, we need to focus more on science education in this country. It’s hard for people to interpret what they hear and read if they have no basic understanding of how data is obtained and evaluated.

I’m afraid most people just don’t have a firm grasp on how the scientific method really works…me very much included.

Joe – hey man. Not sure if you realized my post was intentionally sarcastic, but either way, it looks like you have some pretty strong opinions.

I mostly disagree with you except that you raise a good point about electric vehicles – they’re not going to do much about our oil problems until the electricity they use isn’t produced with oil.

Peter – nice to see you around Peter! That’s interesting that so many people make the wrong choice when trying to make the biggest improvements, but not necessarily surprising.

Those kinds of decisions are typically based a lot more on psychology than on numbers.

http://www.predictablyirrational.com/?p=264

Just sayin’.

These nut jobs have even pressured the IEA into scaling down their production forcasts and upping the depletion rates.

So what if the US production has being going down since the early 70’s, I read somewhere that we are just saving our oil till the price is right. We just pretended to double the exploration expendature in the late 70’s.

Those peakers are so dumb, don’t they know that the electric cars could not be supported unless millions of wind turbines were raised and thousands of solar plants were install and that there is not enough energy to do this with out changing our current usage.

Those dumb asses probably don’t even know the significance of EROI in energy extraction.

Whenever I come across these folks, I tend to agree with them. You’re right, dudes! We used to label homosexuality as a disease! We are frequently wrong and do change!

But then I start talking about consensus. It’s really, really, reeeeaalllllly difficult for scientists to come to a consensus on any issue. When they do, it’s time to pay attention. And then anecdotal evidence versus statistical, reading actual research vs. journalists’ interpretation of research, etc., etc.

But most of the time, I just tell them to shut up.