I was recently introduced to the wonders of Google Trends in an open thread at theoildrum.com.

Trending 'peak oil' provides some interesting insights.

The increasing trend is good, showing slow but steady progress is being made on the issue (but probably not fast enough, I fear). But what is really interesting is the distribution of the results by region, which are in descending order:

1. New Zealand


2. Australia


3. United States


4. Ireland


5. Canada


6. Sweden


7. Finland


8. United Kindom


9. Switzerland


10. Netherlands

Now, considering the population of these countries shows that, in particular, the citizens of NZ, Ireland, Sweden, Finland & Switzerland are especially aware of the problem. The US has a particularly poor showing considering its population.

It comes as no suprise that Sweden is very  forward thinking, with a goal to be oil free by 2020.

I am not aware of any energy initiatives in the other nations where "peak oil awareness per person" is high (NZ, Ireland, Finland, Switzerland), can anyone point to initiatives in this area in these nations?

It was also suprising that Germany did not rank in the results, considering the efforts put into recycling and wind power in Germany. Or perhaps the German's search on some other term than 'peak oil', it could be an artifact of language or the way the trending software works.

It is also illuminating to compare trends between terms, such as peak oil vs gas prices, or peak oil vs petrol prices. Unfortunately the different vernacular used for the same product (gas vs petrol) makes direct comparison between North America and the rest of the world difficult.

However, it is still worth nothing that there were approx 10 times more results for 'gas prices' than 'peak oil' in the US and Canada, indicating that these countries don't really "get it" yet. For 'petrol prices' vs 'peak oil', Australia & Ireland have about twice as many results for 'petrol prices', NZ about 1.5 times and the UK about 5 times, showing that the UK still has some way to go with regards to education about peak oil. Other European countries had more results for 'peak oil' than 'petrol prices', but again this could be an artifact of language.

What other interesting trends or comparisons can people come up with?