Useless Poll

Polls are ubiquitous in the news these days. Newspapers and TV stations are always commissioning polls, and then doing stories on the results, whether they be about elections, big issues, or irrelevant issues. Some of these polls aren't worth much, like this one: "Most people believe oil is running out and governments need to find another fuel."

Did they poll petroleum engineers, geologists, or some other category of experts to reach this conclusion? No, they polled average people in 15 countries (China, India, the United States, Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Mexico, Britain, France, Iran, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, South Korea) and one terrorist entity (the Palestinian territories). I don't expect the average citizen of an industrialized nation to be able to knowledgeably answer this question. I can't answer this question. But how many residents of Third World countries have enough information to answer this question? The amount of oil left on this planet is not a matter of opinion; it is a scientific calculation, and its not even the real issue. The real issue is, "How much oil is left that we can affordably extract?" This question depends on factors such as the price of oil and the creation of new technologies. This poll is worthless, like another poll I wrote about at the KVNU site. Interestingly enough, the results of both these polls line up with liberal opinion. That's probably why these stories were printed.