THe Future is Now - the End of Cheap Oil

"Malthus was certainly correct but cheap oil skewed the equation over the past hundred years while the human race has enjoyed an unprecedented orgy of non-renewable condensed solar energy accumulated over eons of prehistory."

Even within that "opulent" era, humanities problems of population, energy, and food were evident in many areas that suffered from regional famines, diseases, and wars. The era ahead of us is certainly bringing in a new era of globalization – an era of resource wars and energy wars – of trauma - that will see no winner.

IV - Solutions – are not easy

Answers, as seen above are limited. There is no easy way out of an easy energy source that is rapidly coming to its end. If the American way of life is truly non-negotiable as indicated by Bush and Cheney, then "it most certainly is on life-support and now being sustained by cruelty, brute force, and lies." If the American way of life, and 'western' civilization are negotiable, then immediate action needs to be taken in order to prevent the worst of the trauma of transition to a new paradigm.

For years conservationists have been advocating many personal level responses and actions that could help the environment. More recently, corporations are greening their image by supporting those ideas and other ideas that appear to help the environment, but are still heavily dependent on consumption and oil energy. Neither will be sufficient as we move into an oil-free energy era.

Responses need to be twofold, at the level of the individual 'consumer' and at the broader societal level. But will corporations stop advertising for consumption? Will consumers willingly submit to a minimalist existence (forget Christmas shopping, holiday trips to the tropics)? There are many considerations about what could be done which I will not get into here. It is painfully obvious that we need to negotiate and then act our way into a more minimalist life style, while somehow maintaining a decent transportation and agricultural system based on new technology that can also serve to decrease the global population level to a sustainable level in a humanitarian way (birth control), a comfort level and not at a survival-starvation level.

The future is now

There are many current events topics that on the surface may seem to be distinct items, but most newsworthy events of a truly newsworthy status are all related to the capture of energy resources. Russia has already seen a part of this when their economy collapsed after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. The Russian population dropped significantly as did the statistical life span and the quality of life. Only recently under the tutelage of Putin's watch has Russia been able to stabilize itself for the short-term future. The many ongoing little battles around the world – the drug wars in Columbia, the famine in Darfur, the wars in the Congo and its neighbours, the rebellions and insurgent attacks in Nigeria are all part of the resource wars. The whole of the Middle East is the centre of the resource wars: Iraq is occupied and several large scale military bases are under construction; Afghanistan is undergoing its habitual battles with foreign occupation and interference; Pakistan, always an influence in Afghanistan, an integral part of the situation, is balancing precariously between American desires and its own ethnic relations with its neighbours.

Israel/Palestine presents a frightening mix of religious absolutism and imperial extension. Heinberg makes no mention of Israel without affecting his themes, which do not delve into geopolitics. In its political correctness, Klare's work mentions Israel only in passing, leaving it without significance in the geopolitics of the resource wars (again significantly weakening his presentation). The other works are very strongly worded and give much more significance to the Israeli role – its spy networks throughout the world, its clandestine arms dealing, its strong lobbying group (AIPAC in particular) that has U.S. presidential hopefuls kowtowing before it to try and ensure their election, its military and economic presence in the Middle East.

Ruppert gives full credence to Israeli participation/awareness within the overall picture of 9/11 and the global resource wars. Along with many other references, two full chapters are devoted to Israel, one on "Israel" itself with a follow up titled "Silencing Congress". His summary of the Israeli role is strongly worded:

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