To the Editor,

As a panelist on the energy symposium at the Doylestown Library on April 2, I am responding to your editorial of Thursday, April 7:

You say that “much of what the doomsayers present as fact is nothing but sheer speculation.” It is not arguable, however, that the earth is near-- or even past-- a time when the amount of oil we pump out of it cannot be increased, but can only decline. It is also a fact that consumption is increasing rapidly. China used twice as much energy last year as it did the year before. China is the fastest growing economy and is now the second biggest consumer of energy. These facts alone should give rise to great concern.

If our attempt to inform the public about the imminent decline in global oil supply, and prepare them for it, appears to you to be “extremism,” please note that our moderator was Ellen Bard, former Republican state representative-- hardly an extremist. Then please look at the recent remarks on “peak oil” by another Republican, Congressman Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland. In a speech in the House on March 14, Bartlett said: “People who have been talking about this (peak oil) until recently have been relegated to the lunatic fringe, but I think the evidence it out there, and the marketplace is saying it is out there, because oil is now at $55 a barrel, and I saw one future that was $100 a barrel. If demand continues to increase and output cannot increase, energy prices are going through the ceiling.”

Bartlett goes on to call for emergency legislation on a scale of the Manhattan Project of the 1940s, or the space program of the 1960s to move the nation toward energy independence. He correctly equates this to national security.

Sadly, your editorial looks only at the glass being half empty. You ignore the entire second half of the symposium, a presentation by Amory Lovins on “Natural Capitalism.” Lovins. gives a number of examples of wonderful technologies and system designs, which if adopted on a large scale, would give us energy independence, a cleaner environment, and greater national security—all at tremendous cost savings.

We all hope that the doomsayers are wrong, but if we respond as if a worst case scenario is imminent, we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

We invite you to exercise your responsibility as journalists. Join us in educating the public about the changes that can and must be made to assure a brighter future for ourselves and future generations. What threatens us most is complacency and denial.

Sincerely,

Gus Linton, panelist: “The End of Suburbia” energy symposium