Fear and loathing and global warming

Why did Exxon pay millions to fund global warming skeptics? And via a think tank offer $10,000 to scientists and economists who would publish anything critical of a recent UN climate report? A likely reason is that demand destruction is real.

While demand is still rising in countries such as China, though at a lower rate than recent years, demand in developed countries is actually down. The International Energy Agency, whose members include countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan and Canada, said in January that oil consumption in the group fell 0.6 per cent in 2006, the first significant slip since the 1980s.

If this trend were to continue, we'd hit Peak Demand in the West before Peak Oil.