No, you require that /everyone/ be short sighted and at the same time, not actually looking after their own interests.
While I do agree that people are generally selfish, my experience with various executives across industries is that they're hardly stupid, and that there are many smart people working on the world's problems, even if only to make a buck off it.
More to the point, I only need to think that a one-in-a-million person cares to do anything about the "peak oil problem", is intelligent, and is in a position to do so in order to believe that there are 7,000 people working actively on it.
There are only a few hundred major oil companies globally, meaning that each one will like have a dozen (or more, for larger ones) people who are intelligent, highly motivated one-in-a-million people working on it.
I think you greatly underestimate the number of people and the scale at which humans currently operate.
It would be borderline impossible for them to all be short-sighted in the same way, at the same time, given the sheer number of people who are working on the problem, particularly given that there's a strong economic incentive to not make that mistake.
tl;dr: No, your belief requires that literally everyone in the oil industry thought process (tens or hundreds of thousands of people) not be looking after their own self-interests if they're driving the bus off a cliff, and that they will all do so in the same manner and at the same time.
While I do agree that people are generally selfish, my experience with various executives across industries is that they're hardly stupid, and that there are many smart people working on the world's problems, even if only to make a buck off it.
More to the point, I only need to think that a one-in-a-million person cares to do anything about the "peak oil problem", is intelligent, and is in a position to do so in order to believe that there are 7,000 people working actively on it.
There are only a few hundred major oil companies globally, meaning that each one will like have a dozen (or more, for larger ones) people who are intelligent, highly motivated one-in-a-million people working on it.
I think you greatly underestimate the number of people and the scale at which humans currently operate.
It would be borderline impossible for them to all be short-sighted in the same way, at the same time, given the sheer number of people who are working on the problem, particularly given that there's a strong economic incentive to not make that mistake.
tl;dr: No, your belief requires that literally everyone in the oil industry thought process (tens or hundreds of thousands of people) not be looking after their own self-interests if they're driving the bus off a cliff, and that they will all do so in the same manner and at the same time.