This article, "The Scourge of Peak Oil" by Dahr Jamail gives an excellent overview of what Peak Oil is and how it will affect our lives. The author believes that Peak Oil may already have arrived and I agree that it is in its beginning stages. This is evidenced by the fact that, even with much of the world still in recession, the cost of a barrel of oil and the cost per gallon of gas continue to remain high. For those who say that part of the high cost of gasoline is due to Wall Street speculators they are right; but why is speculation so high and continuing? It's because those speculators know that we are heading into a scenario in which world supply is becoming more and more problematic and they are protecting their interests.
As the article states, the International Energy Agency (IEA) is forecasting a global oil consumption rate of about 89.5 million barrels per day for 2011 and 91 million bpd in 2012. China and India, among other nations with rapidly growing economies, are using more and more oil. Considering the fact that world oil production is currently just keeping up with this growing demand, the specter of Peak Oil is looming ominously over this planet. It's not a case of if Peak Oil will happen; it's simply a question of when it will happen.
As supply problems dramatically escalate, the first thing that the oil producing nations will do is guarantee their own supply of oil by cutting back exports to other nations. That will magnify the problem and cause an immediate disruption in shipments of oil all over the world. Nations that formerly embraced the concept of globalism will, whether they like it or not, be unable to continue existing trade agreements with other nations when the combination of oil shortages and escalating costs make it prohibitive.
Now how is this going to affect America and its massive imports of products from China, Japan and other nations? How will it affect America's many transnational corporations whose entire agenda depends upon these imported products? The demise of globalism will be devastating to Corporate America, and massive retail chains such as Wal-Mart will see their pipeline of products from China begin to dry up; they will see sales plummet. America will, temporarily, be caught up in a very dire situation because, when imports are significantly disrupted, there will be a dearth of American manufacturing companies needed to pick up the slack.
And that will become a turning point that will pave the way for the restoration of this nation's manufacturing sector. Corporate America will have a clear choice; it can bail out on America and concentrate its operations overseas or it can, instead, recognize and accept the revolutionary changes taking place and aggressively rebuild the manufacturing sector, including the hiring of millions of American workers. Whether major corporations stay or go, you can bet that there will be plenty of U.S. entrepreneurs who will seize the opportunity to take advantage of producing products for a large domestic market with little to no competition from China, Japan and other foreign nations.
While there is no absolute guarantee that globalism will end as the era of Peak Oil begins the probability is very high. These developments could bring about the restoration of this nation's consumer-driven economy that is currently in its death throes. The rebirth of the manufacturing sector, together with taking millions of workers off the unemployment rolls and into productive jobs is exactly the shot in the arm that America needs.
So, I am confident that in the coming years we will witness the demise of globalism and, with it, a great opportunity to transform America from a nation in a steep downward spiral to one with a very promising future.
Michael Payne
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