Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil

Corsi and Smith certainly contribute to a better understanding about the real nature of oil and natural gas (which, in fact, are not fossil fuels) and the impact on socio-economic and enviromental issues such as peak oil myth and global warming hoax.

This book was very good; it kicked off my interest in energy; Eye opener; at the time I read it was dated; the dates were off; but read it for the info; very informative and thoughtful; I liked it; I did not put it down; read chapter by chapter.

BLACK GOLD STRANGLEHOLD is an interesting and illuminating book about the origins of Oil and the geopolitics and economics that surround our dependence on the substance. It is, simply put, a revelation on our new understanding of the geophysical origin and wide availability of Oil that is not elsewhere readily found in the literature. The world is not running out of Oil -- and probably never will. In fact, proven oil reserves are today greater than at any time in history. Because Oil is not a "fossil fuel" and has nothing to do with dinosaurs and decomposed forests. This has been suspected for decades, but only demostrated in the laboratory as recently as 2004, with nary a dinosaur in the room at the time! This is an important book, well worth the read. Yes, a few sections get a little bit strident, but understandably so. We have Oil. It's readily available, if we want it. US independence from foreign Oil is possible and within our reach. "Drill here, drill now, pay less" can become a reality. So, let's get started now.

~Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil~ is a brave challenge to the prevalence of politically-motivated pseudo-science and the crude politics of oil. Jerome R. Corsi and Craig R. Smith expose the fraudulent geologic science behind the myth of oil scarcity: which is a myth that the geologists on the payrolls of oil cartels have no intention of challenging. In the sensational movie dramatization about the politics of oil Syriana, the hard-hitting narrative on the movie trailer proclaimed, "It's running out. And 90% of what's left is in the Middle East. It's going to be a fight to the death." None of that was really true, but many think it to be so. The fossil fuel myth is one of the most egregious scientific myths of our time. The biogenic hypothesis for the origins of petroleum was first proposed in 1757 by Russian scholar Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765). The Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev (1834-1937) and the French chemist Marcellin Berthelot (1827-1907) later gave credence to the theory, through their research. The Abiogenic theory saw a revival by Russian and Ukrainian scientists in the past century, and following the release in 1999 of The Deep Hot Biosphere by Thomas Gold, its credibility increased among American scientists. Gold's theory is based on the existence of a biosphere composed of thermophile bacteria in the earth's crust, which explains the existence of biomarkers in petroleum. The presence of microscopic biological matter in oil compelled scientists such as Lomonosov to conclude that oil had biological origins. But as scientist Fred Hoyle said in approbation of Gold's thesis: "The suggestion that petroleum might have arisen from soem transformation of squashed fish or biological detritus is surely the silliest notion to have been entertained by substantial numbers of persons over an extended period of time." In 2002, a large section of the Larsen B Ice Shelf broke free of the Antarctic Peninsula. When scientific submersibles probed the icey bottom of of the seafloor measuring twice the size of Texas, they made a startling discovery. The through below the ice shelf had been undisturbed for ages, and it was breeding with life: it was a colony of clams and layers of bacterial mats. The life thrived on methane and was incapable of photosynthesis, as no light was accessible to it. Similarly, microscopic organisms that live in petroleum below the earth's surface live off of the petroleum itself. The discovery in Antarctica confirmed Thomas Gold's hypothesis that a "deep, hot biosphere" would be found where organisms thrived by drawing energy directly from hydrocarbon sources pouring out of the earth's mantle. In reality petroleum is "abiogenic and ubiquitous deep in the earth." Consisting mostly of hydrocarbons, it is produced deep within the earth's core, which subjects it to immense heat and pressure. The centrifugal forces of the earth's rotation act to propel petroleum to the substratum of the earth'

Just reading how polarized these comments are -- looking at what the low-rating readers say -- made me want to read this book. There must be something here that the "fossil fuel" guys don't want us to know -- that's what I concluded. Then I read the book. Okay, a few typos -- so it's a first printing, okay. But it never made any sense that oil came from dinosaurs. This is what the oil companies want us to think. The low ratings on this book look political, like somebody's pet theory got stepped on. Let's open up our minds. Maybe the sun doesn't revolve around the Earth. Is there any harm in taking a challenging theory seriously? I don't think so. The book is easy to read and it made me think. There are a lot of people working in oil fields and in the petroleum industry who agree with what this book says, even if they don't want to get fired for saying so. Read the book and make up your own mind. That's what I think.