Between the people like Matt Simmons and T. Boone Pickens who say we’re at peak oil already, and the ones like Chris Skrebowski who says in his Megafields Project that we’re no more than 4 years away, this should be getting even more attention than global warming.

However, once Peak Oil becomes undeniable, unless massive numbers continue to be persuaded that “it’s all a conspiracy and if those $*#> environmentalists would just let us drill we would be fine,” then I predict that as acceptance of Peak Oil grows, resistance to the idea of Global Warming will also shrink.

You see, Global Warming has uncomfortable implications for our lifestyles, and so must be denied. The same with Peak Oil, but Peak Oil is coming whether we like it or not, in more immediate and tangible forms than Global Warming. Moreover, it hits us where we can see it directly: when we pay for fuel every week, rather than contributing to a vague (to some people) amount of desertification somewhere, or to poverty in the third world, etc.

As people begin to face the reality that their lifestyle is going to change no matter what, the motivation for resistance to Global Warming will break down. It was a slow process for me, but I have largely come to accept Global Warming after being shocked into awareness of Peak Oil.

The scientific evidence is there, and although may still be arguable to some degree, does not lead an impartial observer to the same conclusion that much of society has made. What I am saying is that the psychological barriers to its acceptance may soon start eroding at a rapid rate.