Dave 1, Ruppert 0

For those of you keeping score in the Dave McGowan vs. Mike Ruppert debate on "Peak Oil" I am posting the results here. The story so far is that Dave tossed in some comments about the premise of "Peak Oil" (the idea that the world is running out of oil and that this explains much, if not all of American foreign policy) and these comments seemed to irritate Ruppert, the current Peak Oil guru, so to speak. Ruppert, rather than responding, challenged Dave to an independently judged debate with each debater putting up 1000 dollars. Ruppert has a huge website of information, and this was his response. I should actually ding him a point for that.

Anyway, Dave posted an article expressing the quite heretical idea that peak oil is bogus because oil is a renewable resource created not from ancient organic matter but from abiotic processes deep in the center of the earth. I figured Dave was nuts when he told me he was going to write this, but, hey, that's his problem. Turned out, there was a lot of food for thought in his article.

So far, the only response that Dave has published (he promises to post all responses from the "Peak Oil camp" and one from Ruppert evidently just arrived as he finished his first response) was from a guy named Larry Chin. I think Dave should be careful here, because although Chin says Ruppert is a colleague, I don't know that he represents Ruppert in any way. Whatever the case, Chin got his ass kicked. You'll have to read the whole thing, for it is WAY too long to post here, but it is enjoyable. Best line:

Chin: Do you know nothing about Venezuela?

McGowan: Didn't he used to pitch for the Dodgers?

I'll look forward to reading more of this debate. If you are interested, you can post your own comments here and I'll collect the good ones and send them to Dave in one email. I think he's a bit tied up with this right now to answer too many individual emails.

Used to pitch for the Dodgers...that kills me.