As James Hansen has recently warned, coal-to-liquids and other attempts to extend the era of oil, such as exploring the tar sands of Canada or Venezuela, will make the global warming picture much worse. The intrepid writers at The Oil Drum have been pointing out for some time now that these various "unconventional" sources of oil are feeble attempts to deal with the problem. They will be horrendously expensive, use up copious amounts of rapidly depleting water, and use up so much energy we don't even know if we'll come out ahead energy-wise. The promise of these projects is being used to lull the public back into their American Dream daze.
The phenomenon of the peaking of the supply of oil worldwide is usually called "peak oil", which means that oil supply builds to a crescendo and then starts a long slide down, even as global demand goes up: pop goes the price of oil.
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