Noam Chomsky: Peak Oil and a Changing Climate

The Nation (Jan 3, 2011): The scientific community has long […]

Post Author:

Santimvah

Date Posted:

January 26, 2014

The Nation (Jan 3, 2011): The scientific community has long agreed that our dependence on fossil fuels inflicts massive damage on the environment and our health, while warming the globe in the process. But beyond the damage these fuels cause to us now, what will happen when the world’s supply of oil runs out?

In a new video series from The Nation magazine and On The Earth Productions, Bill McKibben, Noam Chomsky, Nicole Foss, Richard Heinberg and other scientists, researchers and writers explain.

In this sixth video in the series “Peak Oil and a Changing Climate” from The Nation and On The Earth Productions, linguist, philosopher and political activist Noam Chomsky talks about the Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute and other business lobbies enthusiastically carrying out campaigns “to try and convince the population that global warming is a liberal hoax.” According to Chomsky, this massive public relations campaign has succeeded in leading a good portion of the population into doubting the human causes of global warming.

Known for his criticism of the media, Chomsky doesn’t hold back in this clip, laying blame on mainstream media outlets such as the New York Times, which will run frontpage articles on what meteorologists think about global warming. “Meteorologists are pretty faces reading scripts telling you whether it’s going to rain tomorrow,” Chomsky says. “What do they have to say any more than your barber?” All this is part of the media’s pursuit of “fabled objectivity.”

Of particular concern for Chomsky is the atmosphere of anger, fear and hostility that currently reigns in America. The public’s hatred of Democrats, Republicans, big business and banks and the public’s distrust of scientists all lead to general disregard for the findings of “pointy-headed elitists.” The 2010 elections could be interpreted as a “death knell for the species” because most of the new Republicans in Congress are global warming deniers. “If this was happening in some small country,” Chomsky concludes, “it wouldn’t matter much. But when it’s happening in the richest, most powerful country in the world, it’s a danger to the survival of the species.”
http://www.thenation.com/video/158093/noam-chomsky-how-climate-change-became-liberal-hoax

About the Author: Santimvah

31 Comments

  1. kervennic January 7, 2012 at 6:18 pm - Reply

    The trap chomsky is taking about is by no mean specific to market economy
    but is an inherent, built-in feature of industrial society and even
    civilization at large. This point that has been voiced by radical
    anarchists is never adressed by Chomsky and co. They can then shed tears,
    as long as they refuse to analyse and adress the causal roots of all this,
    their voice is just fuelling the big entertainment displayed by our
    mediacracy. We will watch our own agony on TV. Best shrill ever !

  2. kervennic January 7, 2012 at 6:29 pm - Reply

    Industrialisation is based on division. It divided thinking, production to
    such a point that nobody can understand or know the impact of his own
    input. This is not a market problem. In the soviet times irresponsibility
    and ignorance was paramount. Industrialisation is here to suppress
    intelligence and thinking because it feeds on automation and create
    authority. Social positions (CEO, professors) are based on this principle
    and can be questionned. If we do not use our hand we use oil or slaves.

  3. davidmaren2000 January 23, 2012 at 11:58 am - Reply

    ha global warming has been debunked. do you not know they have cnanged the
    moniker to climate change. i am so sick of hearing the scientific community
    has agreed. no it has not. the socialist left will and must never control
    the energy sector. it will be our downfall. oh wait that is what they want

  4. TOMMY TOWNE March 6, 2012 at 8:09 pm - Reply

    @MixedSpecieMixedRace The Myth peaked in the United states in the 70’s. LOL

  5. mcwolfus March 18, 2012 at 11:57 pm - Reply

    @TheMarketingGroup

  6. Anders Buer April 3, 2012 at 12:41 am - Reply

    I recognize the phenomenon of global warming but to be honest, I am not
    willing to take the consequences into account. It will cost me too much. I
    am not willing to freely give away my current lifestyle to preserve the
    planet for future generations. I know I sound cruel, but think about it for
    a second. I am just saying what everybody really means, but noone dares to
    say openly.

  7. klondike444 April 4, 2012 at 9:02 pm - Reply

    Hartmann: “Hi, I’m Thom Hartmann. Join me in listening to various experts
    discuss fossil fuel depletion and global warming.” Funny thing though; for
    the last year or so Thom Hartmann himself WONT TALK ABOUT PEAK OIL. Anyone
    know why?

  8. Geof B May 11, 2012 at 11:54 pm - Reply

    i work in the oilpatch and recently all the development is in directional
    drilling and fracing of old wells and the increase of oil production is
    incredible . some old wells that have basically quit producing are fraced
    and start producing 600 cubes a day . instead of hitting a zone of 8 feet
    directional drilling follows the zone and really produces big . in the past
    we have only been scratching the surface and now we are starting to produce
    in big quanties never before seen .peak oil ? NOT

  9. Geof B May 11, 2012 at 11:57 pm - Reply

    chomskey talks about the mainstream media promoting the deniers . he full
    of shit ! the mainstream media promotes manmade warming 99% . i hate these
    fucking one worlders , they are gross liers

  10. jackie castle June 4, 2012 at 11:19 pm - Reply

    And the nations were angry, and YOUR wrath is come, and the time of the
    dead, that they should be judged, and that YOU should give reward unto YOUR
    servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear YOUR name,
    small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.
    rev.11:18 by the works of our hands it unfolds even now

  11. gavhof June 7, 2012 at 3:42 am - Reply

    don’t waste my time. why can’t you guys just keep it to yourselves. utter
    nonsense

  12. Geof B June 16, 2012 at 8:20 am - Reply

    no idea about what asshole ?

  13. gavhof June 16, 2012 at 8:44 am - Reply

    another great come back! you are really impressing me with your intellect

  14. Jack Ashley August 20, 2012 at 3:38 pm - Reply

    Look at the more recent videos and articles about “Peak Oil” Right now,
    more and more highly regarded skeptics are now agreeing. Simply put, we are
    running out of cheap oil. We could drill all day but even still, we will
    use 2 barrels of oil to find and create just 1 barrel. Eventually any
    reserve will run dry. Google “peak oil” Educate yourself. Let’s think
    “sustainability”. Let’s be active in our free market society and create
    more competition for oil. Let’s think about generations.

  15. mphello August 25, 2012 at 9:16 am - Reply

    Because whenever tough action is attempted, like banning coal and oil,
    fanatic free market conservatives throw a fit and object. I fully support
    killing all meat-eaters and religious nuts and coal company executives.
    Show me how all those dead meat-eating anti-environmentalists can ever
    pollute again.

  16. Geof B August 28, 2012 at 8:45 am - Reply

    mass starvation ?peak oil animal rights ,global warming ? your right i dont
    take that shit seriously .i dont believe this fear mongering crap .people
    who do are simpletons . do you live in the city ? ill bet you do . as for
    you comment re socialism -communism i dont know where you got that i never
    mentioned it . fas people like you should not be able to have babies .to
    many freaks here already lol and the last sentence in your reply .what does
    that mean ? go back to school !

  17. Geof B September 2, 2012 at 8:28 am - Reply

    ahhh i see you are truly a master in reparte . but you still dont make any
    sense . sad for you though its not my lack of learning thats the problem
    .you just dont make sense . maybe you are one of those non-existent
    “typical city greenies”

  18. bashful228 December 23, 2012 at 3:54 pm - Reply

    Yeah that’s exactly what defines peak oil jbfrodsham, cost of extraction
    becomes higher and higher as supply declines, not to mention demand still
    rising. I guess you just like to disagree with people even when you hold
    the same view. It’s just elementary statistical analysis. More to the point
    we DO NOT have the carbon budget to be buring those tars sands all all the
    coal left in the worlds known reserves, let alone any unknown reserves.
    Climate is already plummeting to wildly unsafe state.

  19. John Ortiz February 15, 2013 at 12:10 am - Reply

    Guess what, USA exports most of it’s oil. And no, that isn’t a good thing.

  20. leebtodd February 15, 2013 at 1:45 am - Reply

    and why would you even argue oil exports are bad??? The USA has had a net
    trade deficit not for years but decades. I would bet you have known and
    argued that this is a bad thing. What is it??? exports are good exports are
    bad?????? or some exports are good and some are bad? Really what is it?
    Please use some logic here otherwise you are simply another smart person
    falling for Obama like rhetoric. Adam Smith free markets & Everyone can
    pursue their individual interests is best. TLRRC… Lee

  21. bill till February 27, 2013 at 11:39 pm - Reply

    i dont have kids ,,so i take what i want ,fuck the economy fuck the
    environment and certainly fuck your kids futures ,yes i,m an asshole but
    i,m not the motherfucker making more humans to fuck up the planet

  22. Yuoskalola March 22, 2013 at 1:11 am - Reply

    WHAT DOES IT MATTER what “they” say. Wether you call it climate change,
    global warming, shooting someone in the ass with a dart gun, whatever all
    you have to do is LOOK with your own eyes and see the trash, see the waste,
    see the scum that humanity has created and it’s impossible to not SEE we
    are destroying the planet

  23. ManintheArmor May 14, 2013 at 9:02 am - Reply

    I’ve got a mouth with a tongue still inside. Will that work? :D Damn this
    monitor. It is in the way.

  24. Ela Lamblin May 31, 2013 at 11:28 am - Reply

    very dire…” institutionally speaking”…weve committed ourselves to
    self-destruction.

  25. bedpanner October 16, 2013 at 7:34 am - Reply

    Given up driving?

  26. Mark Ziegler January 1, 2014 at 9:49 pm - Reply
  27. ipspots1 January 20, 2014 at 5:47 pm - Reply

    Last year the 2nd largest oil find ever was found in the US. In west
    Texas…. Yes at somepoint we will reach Peak oil. But we have not yet.

    http://www.nasdaq.com/article/the-2nd-largest-oil-discovery-in-the-history-of-the-world-cm282232

  28. gumzster March 15, 2014 at 2:03 am - Reply

    Richard Heinberg: “Is there a cover up of peak oil”
    Well yea. If you want to cover up an economic collapse, you go to war. You
    either get to be the only game left in town or you get to blame the
    collapse on someone rather then systemic malfunction. We (or a majority)
    will point our finger at whatever entity the propaganda tells us to.
    History show this over and over and over.
    The future is bleak.

  29. Geof B April 28, 2014 at 7:12 am - Reply

    Well its 2014 now and peak oil is turning out to be line of bullshit put
    out by the fear mongers . Same as global warming and peak population . Thom
    Hartman should get another job . He has no idea what the big picture is .
    As for Chomsky , he is a very huge lier who easily bamboozels so called
    educated young univercity students . Global warming is being changed today
    to “climate change” . Itis not warming today .it is staying the same . I
    wish it was warming but sad to say its just another lie . the old idiot
    toes the party line as a global warmist . People who listen to him are
    obviously not to much into critical thinking .

  30. Peter Caulton June 5, 2014 at 12:05 am - Reply

    Too many people is the obvious problem. There is not one western democratic
    government promoting depopulation. It is a simple equation. Less people
    less pollution and consumption. Less than one degree increase in
    temperature in 100 years is hardly panic time and has happened naturally on
    this planet many times before. Oil should be out due to many pollution
    problems not just global warming.

  31. Clark Magnuson June 5, 2014 at 9:16 am - Reply

    One person or another has said this is the year of peak oil, for the last
    100 years.
    A stopped clock is right twice a day, but these guys are not right once a
    century.
    The smart thing to do is use oil until it is too expensive.
    The dumb thing to do is worry that the world is running out of oil.
    No one is that stupid? …….. Watch the video.

See also  Environment and Civilization, Anuta vs Easter Island

Leave a Reply

The Climate State Newsletter