Wikipedia:Good article reassessment/Peak oil/1

Peak oil

 * • [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Good_article_reassessment/Peak_oil/1&action=watch Watch article reassessment page] • Most recent review
 * Result: Delisted, due to unresolved prose and reference issues. — Retrohead (talk) 10:02, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

This article was reassessed by user:Nehrams2020 back in 2009 and significant improvement was done at that time. However, since then there have been a lot of changes and some of them compromise the quality of that article as GA. First of all, it has been tagged for several months which is during the review process is enough for failure without further review. The article at its current stage also fails 1b and 2b, and there is a question about criteria 4. Namely, there are issues with WP:PROSE and WP:IC. Also, there are dispute about the content. Although this dispute as been died away at the talk page, one can't say that the issue has been resolved. The article also needs some trimming, cleanup and copyediting. Beagel (talk) 18:21, 5 June 2014 (UTC)


 * This is a very weak review. Please use the Template:GAList and be specific about what you think disqualifies the article from GA. For example, "It has been tagged for several months..." - I see no tags so, to which tag do you refer?  Why does it not meet 1b and 2b, etc.? As for the controversy, that will likely not be resolved in my lifetime.  As long as all sides are presented, that does not disqualify the article from GA.  I don't necessarily dispute that the article could use some updating and re-organization, but please present a well-reasoned argument for why it should be de-listed.  Meclee (talk) 00:18, 6 June 2014 (UTC)


 * This was not a review but a request for a community reassessment to be conducted. As I am among the top10 editors (by number of edits) for this page, I will not conduct the review myself. However, I provided some of my concerns about the current stage of this article for the review process. I also never said that the article should be delisted, I just have concerns that this article may not meet all GA criteria, as of today. This is an issue to be clarified during the re-assessment review process. As for your questions concerning the tag, I referred to the unreferenced section at the top of the 'Definitions' subsection. This unsourced subsection is also a reason why the article fails by my understanding 2b. As for 1b, it fails WP:MOS, namely WP:PROSE and WP:LAY at the same subsection. WP:PROSE applies to the embedded list. The problem with WP:LAY is that there is two subsection under separate sections about the same issue (unconventional sources). There may be other issues which may come-if if appropriate review is conducted. Thank you. Beagel (talk) 15:38, 6 June 2014 (UTC)

Article is very dated.
 * Comments about what Simmons and Deffeyes predict, in present tense in lead: Simmons dead for 4 years and Deffeyes unavailable for RS reporter questions about failed predictions.  (Surely their predictions are very old?  And Simmons had some crazy talk predictions of $500 oil, which sure has not come to pass.  So becomes a little bit of a questionable spokesperson.)
 * In article, spots where a series is discussed as '1900 to 2005' or the like [endpoints many years ago].
 * Also, the US and Texas graphics need updating, but then won't sure won't fit the story as well.

This article is a holdover of the mid-2000s Internet buzz about peak oil. There is the famous graphic of how Google searches for Peak Oil are down (peaked actually) and for fracking are up. At this point, there are even RS's to discuss this Internet phenom in the rear view mirror (TOD dying, Campbell/Deffeyes unavailable for comments, Ruppert's suicide, ASPO not having conferences anymore, Savinar becoming an astrologist, Ghawar not watering out, etc.) In actuality oil production has plateu-ed, even slightly increasing over last 10 years. Definitely not the bell curve like predictions of Campbell (2%/year drops post 2005 was what he said) and others.

Small nit: Campbell sure did not popularize the term "peak oil". He just was a bigwig in the latest Internet peak oil buzz. But the term itself was common in the 70s, 80s. Try a Google Books search for Hubbert AND "peak oil". You will see the term peak oil used with blithe familiarity.

For balance (and for an RS), some of the research from The Quest (good book by a Pulitzer Prize winning historian) should be used. The phenom of peak oil fads is documented as having occurred before.

Peak oil is a concept that needs an article. And yes, oil will peak eventually. I guess with enough effort a GA could be constructed, perhaps even by a very fair, sober peak oil advocate. But it will be hard given the concept itself has some strong political overtones (alliance with environmentalism, with the left wing). Also given the complexity of the phenomenon: are we talking about peak oil (the oil itself) or the term or the social hypes around it. I guess it should be all 3. But it's not a simple topic like a biography or an animal species.

68.6.152.250 (talk) 14:10, 6 July 2014 (UTC)


 * That is a very strange comment. When I do a search in research journals for articles about peak oil, I get nothing that supports what 68.6.152.250 says. Peak oil is a slow moving story, and the steadiness of what researchers and petroleum engineers have been saying about about the basic premise and issues bears that out. Here's just a tidbit. If 68.6.152.250 has something to add to the discussion, I think the talk page would be a good starting point. Reading through the history of the talk page (where just about everything here has been discussed already) would be even better. 108.242.176.37 (talk) 01:36, 8 July 2014 (UTC)