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August 15, 2008 at 02:14:11

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THe Future is Now - the End of Cheap Oil

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By Jim Miles (about the author)     Page 4 of 7 page(s)

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Oh great. Many religious institutions are not noted for forward looking thinking, and those on the apocalyptic right are no doubt welcoming the hard times ahead as a sign of the coming 'rapture'. Public relations and entertainment are in the hands of big corporations, and combined with our political institutions and their various entanglements are all what created the mess in the first place. Not very reassuring.

Crossing the Rubicon

The final work in this series of horror stories is a rather large tome on the theme of what really transpired with 9/11, not just the event of the attack on the towers, but all the manipulations that preceded it, and all the manipulations that followed. In short Michael Ruppert's theme is that either there were thousands of 'coincidences' within the people and groups concerned, or there has been and is a much larger plan:


"Although the apparent crisis is about terrorism, the real one is about energy scarcity....an incisive account of the energy issue also explains the real functioning of the world's economy – and who controls it, and how this shapes so much of our daily lives."



Knowing the history of Bush and Cheney in entering into the war in Iraq, Ruppert states "no one can rationally say that the Bush administration is incapable of lying." From that he asks "can we afford to not question the multitude of contradictions, lies, falsehoods, and cover-ups surrounding the events of 9/11?" Good question and the writing that follows from it is well documented and covers most topics about 9/11 with equally discriminating questions.

What is significant for my perspective here is his starting position on "limits on the one resource that has propelled the human race to over expand and upon which the species is now dependent: hydrocarbon energy....an increasingly rapid stream of data and experience is ushering in what may be the most significant event in human history; the end of the age of oil."

He touches on the topic of economic growth within the capitalist system "which is really something else...predicated on debt" and other poorly understood financial systems, requiring that "there must be limitless growth into infinity for it to survive. Growth is not possible without energy....There is nothing on our horizon – other than wishful thinking – that can completely replace hydrocarbon energy."

He touches upon common themes on oil supply, that "if demand remains unchanged...the world will run out of conventional oil within thirty-five years." Given that demand is increasing, "conventional oil is limited to perhaps 20 years." His statements are succinct:


"Oil pervades our civilization; it is all around you."


"Oil is critical for our food supply."


"...currently committed to endless growth...One way or another, the have-nots must become customers [consumers]."


"Peak Oil will likely turn human civilization inside out long before global warming does..."


"The catastrophe made inevitable by these limits is beginning now."


"Whoever controls the oil in the Eurasian continent, which includes the Middle East, the Caspian Basin, and Central Asia, will determine who lives and who dies, who eats and who starves."

Ruppert discusses the lack of alternatives, recognizing as the others do that new technology may help but cannot fully replace the facility with which oil has energized our society. His main example is electricity, beginning with the basic idea that "electricity is not a primary energy source, but merely a carrier of energy produced by some other source," and ending with the idea that "Electric vehicles are an illusory solution."

America's production of oil peaked in 1970. Global production has or will peak, by most best estimates, sometime between 2005 and 2010, but we won't know for sure until it has already passed. The per capita production of oil peaked in 1979.

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www.jim.secretcove.ca

Jim Miles is a Canadian educator and a regular contributor/columnist of opinion pieces and book reviews to Palestine Chronicles.  His interest in this topic stems originally from an (more...)
 

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“Oil pervades our civilization; it’s all around you.” by Michael Bonanno on Friday, Aug 15, 2008 at 2:19:39 AM

 
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