Peak Oil - Measuring the Mainstream
For the past two years, I have been keeping an eye on the press to see if peak oil is hitting the mainstream. In that time, books, documentary films, magazine articles, websites, and community groups have all come on the scene. I've been keeping track of something else... how many newspaper and similar online media mention peak oil.
My method is simple. Every so often, I go to news.google.com and type in "peak oil". Some number of hits come up. This number tends to remain constant, particularly since the hits typically go back a full month. At the same time, I've been keeping track of a few dozen other terms that might or might not be related to when peak oil reaches the mainstream.
This week, I started to do this research with a bit more precision. I am now attempting to check all of these hits on a daily basis, entering the data into a spreadsheet, and graphing the change in the results over time. For the most part things are holding steady, but there are a few things I could report.
Compared to a month or so ago, the following items have received more press mentions...
* deflation + oil
* inflation + oil
* stagflation + oil
It seems that there is an increasing correlation between oil and various measures of the economy. The most intriquing is that the words oil and inflation are showing up together more often. Are people getting the idea that higher oil drives inflation?
Over the last year or so, the number of references to "peak oil" has doubled, but still way below the number of mentions such as "energy", "oil", "gas" or "fuel".
Perhaps by keeping track of these terms on a daily basis, there will be some indication of when the press starts to get a clue about peak oil and its relationship to the economy.
References:
Energy Crisis Indicators at Wikipedia
My method is simple. Every so often, I go to news.google.com and type in "peak oil". Some number of hits come up. This number tends to remain constant, particularly since the hits typically go back a full month. At the same time, I've been keeping track of a few dozen other terms that might or might not be related to when peak oil reaches the mainstream.
This week, I started to do this research with a bit more precision. I am now attempting to check all of these hits on a daily basis, entering the data into a spreadsheet, and graphing the change in the results over time. For the most part things are holding steady, but there are a few things I could report.
Compared to a month or so ago, the following items have received more press mentions...
* deflation + oil
* inflation + oil
* stagflation + oil
It seems that there is an increasing correlation between oil and various measures of the economy. The most intriquing is that the words oil and inflation are showing up together more often. Are people getting the idea that higher oil drives inflation?
Over the last year or so, the number of references to "peak oil" has doubled, but still way below the number of mentions such as "energy", "oil", "gas" or "fuel".
Perhaps by keeping track of these terms on a daily basis, there will be some indication of when the press starts to get a clue about peak oil and its relationship to the economy.
References:
Energy Crisis Indicators at Wikipedia