Ads Hint at Peak Oil

I was browsing through the New Yorker this evening and noticed two ads which I suspect would not be there if it weren’t for impending peak oil. The first is from Chevron (p. 9), urging us to conserve energy. It includes this note of concern:

Because of surging economies in the developing world and continued growth among the industrialized nations, global energy use is soaring. As a result, supplies are tight. Prices are rising. And energy users are calling for viable alternatives.

Methinks Chevron is worried. I wonder how long it will be before we see “peak oil” or a similar term show up in an oil company ad.

Three pages later is a Ford ad touting their planned production of 250,000 hybrids a year by 2010 – something one would think they and other companies wouldn’t bother with if they didn’t need to do something to save oil, and fast.

Don’t get me wrong. I support these steps toward energy conservation. But we need to look, as well, at some hard questions, not the least of which is why on earth we would build suburbs with peak oil looming. That is one mammoth misstep in any community’s planning in 2005, and is a step we need to rethink before we regret it.