Peak Oil Theory in Canada’s Globe and Mail: A Case Study of the Construction of Ignorance

Scientific knowledge is essential to understand problems confronting society, and the mass media have become the main source of this knowledge for most people. However, the mass media filter scientific information, leading sometimes to what has been termed “the construction of ignorance.” This article offers a case study of this process. It explains how Canada’s leading newspaper, the Globe and Mail, has depicted oil depletion theory (or “peak oil” theory). By contrasting the history of oil depletion theory with its representation in the Globe and Mail since the turn of the millennium, the article reveals the contours of this constructed ignorance. Comparison with coverage of meteorological and climate change science further refines the analysis. Finally, the article investigates the underlying causes for the Globe and Mail’s treatment of peak oil theory and how it relates to the Canadian context.Les connaissances scientifiques sont essentielles pour comprendre des problèmes qui affectent la société, et les médias sont devenus, pour la plupart des gens, la source principale de ces connaissances. Cependant, les médias filtrent les informations scientifiques, menant parfois à ce qu’on appelle « la construction de l’ignorance ». Cet article offre une étude de cas de ce processus. Il explique comment le principal quotidien du Canada, le Globe and Mail, a dépeint la théorie de l’épuisement du pétrole (dite théorie du pic pétrolier). En comparant l’histoire de la théorie de l’épuisement du pétrole avec sa représentation dans le Globe and Mail depuis le tournant du millénaire, l’article révèle les contours de cette ignorance fabriquée. Une comparaison avec les représentations des sciences de la météorologie et du changement climatique affine l’analyse. Finalement, l’article explore les causes sous-jacentes du traitement de la théorie du pic pétrolier par le Globe and Mail et leurs rapports avec le contexte canadien

Cosmopolitan Commons: sharing resources and risks across borders

With the advent of modernity, the sharing of resources and infrastructures rapidly expanded beyond local communities into regional, national, and even transnational space -- nowhere as visibly as in Europe, with its small-scale political divisions. This volume views these shared resource spaces as the seedbeds of a new generation of technology-rich bureaucratic and transnational commons. Drawing on the theory of cosmopolitanism, which seeks to model the dynamics of an increasingly interdependent world, and on the tradition of commons scholarship inspired by the late Elinor Ostrom, the book develops a new theory of "cosmopolitan commons" that provides a framework for merging the study of technology with such issues as risk, moral order, and sustainability at levels beyond the nation-state. After laying out the theoretical framework, the book presents case studies that explore the empirical nuances: airspace as transport commons, radio broadcasting, hydropower, weather forecasting and genetic diversity as information commons, transboundary air pollution, and two "capstone" studies of interlinked, temporally layered commons: one on overlapping commons within the North Sea for freight, fishing, and fossil fuels; and one on commons for transport, salmon fishing, and clean water in the Rhine.Contributors:Håkon With Andersen, Nil Disco, Paul N. Edwards, Arne Kaijser, Eda Kranakis, Kristiina Korjonen-Kuusipuro, Tiago Saraiva, Nina Wormb