Umlaut,

Agreed. The urgency of the oilmen in the White House who have been on a mission to divide the human race, including Americans, into "haves" and "have-nots" with a huge difference between them is completely consistent with the article. They and their cronies anticipate a nasty energy crunch and so they want to ensure there is so much difference between the "haves" and "have-nots" that the small group of "haves" will have the power to control the remaining energy resources and use them for their own interests, to the great detriment of the many upset and angry "have-nots" who will have to go without.

And, consistent with your analysis, I would venture that if progressives want more radical change within the next few years than the feckless craven semi-fascist Democrats can provide, they will have to have the courage to use something different from ballots in order to achieve it.

what leader will tell us we need to stop economic growth?

There isn't a single geologist (including me) who regards the "abiotic oil" theory as anything but tinfoil-hat. The process of hydrocarbon formation in sedimentary basins are very well understood is is demonstrated again and again. The abiotic oil people might as well be insisting that the periodic table should contain only air, earth, fire and water...

Planet X will pass between the sun and earth at the end of 2012. This fact is kept secret by our government so panic is kept to a low level for as long as possible. This approaching planet is the cause of earth changes that are now being felt by all humanity. Two thirds of the population of earth will not survive. This happens every 3600 years. It is recorded in nature and the Bible. The Elites of the world will go underground or off planet to avoid the cleansing. Peak Oil is the least of the future horrors we all will face within four years.

Like I was saying,

The Right is trying to horde cash for the upcoming crash for themselves and their buddies as apposed to trying to find solutions for humanity to endure this.

To make things worse, I doubt this will make a dent in China and India's thirst for crude. Oil down, consumption up = disaster.

I really don't think we have time to send the Dems a message by voting 3rd party this time. Yes the Dems are lame, they need to go, we need to chuck out the corpro Dems, but a Dem majority in Legislative and Executive branches would at least get us past the veto problem and we need to get on this and off terrorism right now. We can start working on 3rd parties after that and getting the Dem's lame asses out of there for the next elections but this is crucial stuff.

Believe me it's not what I want either, but rather that than living through humanity's hugest socio economic collapse in history. You think Hitler was bad, imagine the horror that would come out of that scenario.

If you think the Dems won't be any better than the Reps in this arena and know a way to get greens into government at a greater majority than Reps in 1 year's time, I'm all ears, let's hear it, if not you know what will happen.

Folks
Lets just take the people of the good old so called United States and this upcoming war over energy.
The people of this USA are devided to the point that they distrust their fellow neighbors.
This distrust runs the gambit from neighbors having stuff that we do not and lording it over us.
To I won't let my child go anywhere near that neighbor ,because he maybe a child molester.
and of course neighbors coming to our doors always selling something.
Now in this Great USA where firearms are plentiful if then even neighbors consider their own neighbors inferior. What do you think are the chances that Neighbor Y goes in a kills Neigbor X for a few pieces of firewood.
Is it only me that sees this possability?
And sure countries will invade other countries for the last bit of food and fuel.
Of course the world can always put their trust in a SOYLENT CORPORATION to govern us as well as feed us.
We are not far from that now.
Ah but wouldn't all the other world corporations miss selling all to guns,missles and bullets?

Reuse is much better then planet abuse
genaman

mike corbell

read the article: lots of factual error in it - it is not actually beleived that oil came from dinosaur remains - oil is regarded as the remains of diatoms and their kind. kind of important point to miss in a scientific critique - and also this - if the russians, with their superior theory can drill for oil so much more successfully, where is all of their dough?

while i am willing to entertain the idea that almost any item from the news is engineered, it is hard to be convinced by engdahl.

There are millions upon millions of people all over the world who have no plan for surviving losing their job and defaulting on their mortgage. Let alone the
simultaneous end of fossil fuelled machinery and vehicles, the supermarket, the modern banking system, experiencing severe restriction of food, water, modern medicine, plastics, computers and all high-tech devices.

Sure we could all pay off our debts, study permaculture, gather tools, and move out onto plots of land, any thoughts as to when this needs to start? Should our leaders be involved? Should there be any kind of plan or is it not a big enough problem? It seems very likely to me many of us may well be waiting to be out on the street hearing the sirens before we find ourselves literally; or more likely figuratively, "buying the farm."

Hey folks, It is all over with for most of us. Just a matter of time running out. We have squandered the last 60 years when we had plenty of warnings--even 200 plus years if you think Malthus was correct and he was basicly correct about population growth. The Conservationist's Lament, is the view from 51 years ago. Anything mentioned here resonate with anybody? We are just a century too late for population control by Margaret Sanger methods. Population control from here on will be nature's methods.
*****************************
Conservationist's Lament
By Kenneth Boulding
In: Man's Role in Changing the Face of the Earth, 1956
University of Chicago Press, p. 1087

The world is finite, resources are scarce,
Things are bad and will be worse.
Coal is burned and gas exploded,
Forests cut and soils eroded.
Wells are dry and air's polluted,
Dust in blowing, trees uprooted,
Oil is going, ores depleted,
Drains receive what is excreted.
Land is sinking, seas are rising,
Man is far too enterprising,
Fire will rage with Man to fan it,
Soon we'll have a plundered planet.
People breed like fertile rabbits,
People have disgusting habits.

Moral: The evolutionary plan went astray by evolving Man.

From: http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/ (Page One)
"What about this theory that oil is actually a renewable resource?"

A handful of people believe oil is actually a renewable resource continually produced by an "abiotic" process deep in the Earth. As emotionally appealing as this theory may be, it ignores most common sense and all scientific fact. While many of the people who believe in this theory consider themselves "mavericks," respected geologists consider them crackpots.

http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=331&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

http://www.museletter.com/archive/150b.html

Peak oil has been scientifically proven to be BS. Oil, petrol. oil, has also been scientifically proven to NOT be a fossil fuel, not organically derived or generated, but instead is a-biotic. F. william Engdahl provides the explanation, excellently stated, and everyone should wake up by reading this article of his.

"War and 'Peak Oil': Confessions of an 'ex' Peak Oil believer", F. William Engdahl, Sep 26 2007, www.globalresearch.ca

People wanting to read the article, and everyone should, likely need to go to the authors index, select the 'E' subindex, and then the index for Engdahl's articles. I doubt that the article is still linked in the GR homepage.

Barn, Im sure if Cuba never lived under economic embargo they would have seen another past. Yet still the fact that they have anything at all is a miracle. Does it make you feel powerful to wear clothes from China and eat toxic food from far away? Why do you defend the model in which you live? Its on the backs of poor people and you have to spit on any success from an isolated island on the foot of Floridas heels. ITs so disgusting.

"Steep Decline in Oil Production Brings Risk Of War And Unrest, Says New Study".

Am I missing something? isn't war and unrest already happening over oil? Or is the continuing war in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Sudan, with threats of war on Iran, Syria and instability in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Pakistan, just over the price of camel's milk?

salvia says:Did you know that a greater percentage of Cubans own their own home than in America? More farmers now own their own land? ........
I take it from your post you have never been to Cuba, I have met a lot of Cubans and none of them owned any real estate of any kind, I doubt that you would want to live there after visiting. Yes, they did deal with less energy resources by hoofing it, mass transportation that makes the Japanese commuter trains look spacious. Of course a side benefit is, generally speaking no obesity problem.

Peak oil doesn't mean squat to the Masters of the Universe:

Corporate jet sales volume and market growth is just fantastic.

"Well, the industry beat both of those totals. Total sales reached $15.14 billion and deliveries came in at 3,580 units. That's a 27 percent increase in billings and nearly a 21 percent increase in unit deliveries over last year."

"Teal Group's ten-year forecast of business jet aircraft for sale deliveries—12,000 jets worth $173.2 billion between 2007 and 2016—represents a 63% increase over the $108.7 billion in deliveries between 1997 and 2006. And, the worst year in our forecast will be better than any year prior to 2006 (this makes us slightly uncomfortable). Compare our forecast to the total value of bizjets delivered between 1987 and 1996, $39 billion, and there has been 400% growth!"

As Leona Helmsley might say if she wasn't DEAD, "only the little people worry about oil" ----- or, 'let them drink tar sands'.

Good one Golddogs. It's the process that worries me.

Whats the problem? there was life before oil and there will be after oil.

What to do......

Buy less, much less, waaayyyyy less.

live in smaller housing.

Insulate well, very well.

grow a garden.

store food.

ride a bicycle.

work much less, 10-15 hrs a week.

wave goodbye to the rich, we will not be supporting them and besides, they really have no skills and talent for the coming "all for one" economy.

relax, we really did need more time off.

As for population control I think the key is in that very 10-20% of the earth's population that live in countries with stable populations. As the time frame for addressing global warming and peak oil is much less than a human life span any population-based answer speaks for itself.

Sometimes farmers will find their herds become unsustainably large for their circumstances. A farmer faced with this planet's similar situation, unable to sell "stock", would resort to culling from the herd the obese 10-20% of animals that are consuming far more than they are worth. He would then ration the feed intake of the remaining healthy animals and also limit their breeding to replacement levels.

However this rhetorical farms fattest animals have taken over and are armed to the teeth. They are prepared to starve out every other animal and consume every last plant in existence to keep their bulging bellies full until the last possible moment. Those obese animals are us. Will we really be no better than dumb livestock, keeping our fat snouts stuck in the ever emptying trough, or will we take steps to avoid foreseeable disaster?

ezeflyer

i loved it as well ... such a positive story

:-)

Marco suggested from personal experience many excesses of oil consumption that surround and form part of his daily life. Many well described examples in that slice of modern life of truly shocking waste.

As the oil runs out, it is indeed quite reasonable to expect these things will change.

But as to whether:

1. Oil will peak slowly enough for most species including ours to die from global warming, or
2. The remaining oil depletes so fast that only civilization as we know it fails with massive human casualties, or instead
3. That there is just enough oil left, being consumed by the right people, to produce the right goods and services, so that fuel prices will gradually rise pushing us to solve any climate and energy problems rational baby step by baby step.

In Marco's happy (third) scenario we will do this by buying fruit in season, video conferencing more, switching off appliances at night, using blinds properly, and opening office windows, prompted to each good turn by the invisible hand of the market. And these would be very sensible things to do, no doubt about that either, pollution and weather permitting.

Would not an awful lot of science need to go into ruling out possibilities one and two, as they seem very dire and if even potentially somewhat true, (as they currently appear to me) requiring our utmost attention to do further research and talk all reasonable world-wide steps to prepare against sooner rather than later. Or are we simply the oil addict saying: "so long as I get my fix today, who cares if I can't find another hit tomorrow or I OD tonight. Because otherwise, after this I'm going to cut back anyway."

I downloaded this in o6..it was written in 2004. Talks about the Peak Oil Scam and is well worth the time to read. Let common sense rule!

http://www.the7thfire.com/peak_oil/peak_oil_is_a_scam_to_promote_world_depopulation.htm

"homo sapien" is a failed experiment . . . .

war for oil? were much too civilized for that to happen.

Thanks salvia. Great video!

Stop operating out of fear.

Permaculture designers are ready to put natural systems into your lives. The transition could be beautiful. Fear shuts down the ability of critical thinking. Stop opeating out of fear and organize a clear solutions path. As I have done. We just need people to invest their lives and a few dollars into an integrated system. Sell the home you have and move into eco nesting camps that could be in the BAJA, California, Oregon, but for now I would not choose Colorado or the southeast. Peak oil leads to peak water from peak population. TO me the best place to migrate is a desert ocean front property. The Altenative Energy Designs that can green deserts and desalinate our water are ready and operate better with solar thermal heat technology. The deserts act as a barrier reef from mosqitos and other disease transmitters.
You can operate much larger land designs and install species care. Rehabilitating species and creating a whole new origin of species.
Deserts are growing and to humidify the desert is exactly what permaculture is all about , accelerating the earths processes and using systems that harmonize with nature.

"New" report? Our Pentagon has had Global Warming and Peak Oil listed as the number one and two threats to American, er, world peace and stability for a decade. A new new report reveals that we do not need any new reports reporting the already well reported.

And a new new new report confirms that the "war for the rest of what's left" is already in the bottom of the third, and Earth is down 7-0.

A 7% annual decline in global oil production would be apocalyptic. May as well party like there's no tomorrow.

I am willing to believe the peak is here, or at least that oil production will never rise substantially over its present level. But I don't believe it is about to begin a decline that steep. And I shudder to think of what will likely happen in the next decade or two if that turns out to be true.

Maybe we'll have to endure 80-degree houses in the summer...

Exactly, up until about 40 years ago, people survied just fine without air conditoning. Now, air conditioning use almost singularly drives the need for more electric generating plants. I used the A/C at my home in Pennsylvania a total of about 5 days all summer (I didn't want central AC at all, but it came with the house).

I have neighbors who keep the thermostat at 68 in summer, and 73 in winter. Go figure...

Correction= If 1000 people come up with 4000 dollars= 4 million thats enough to build the ecosoul.

its 4 million to serve 5000 people. So if we get 1000 people to build $8000 into it we can build a plant large enough for 10 thousand. Thats probably enough for a project that could protect entire family trees.

Can you believe that?

Why I'm not scared of peak oil
By Marco on November 8, 2005
http://www.marco.org/165

Every morning, I wake up and turn off the air conditioner, fan, or humidifier (depending on the season) that has been running all night. Sometimes I'll leave it on all day, too, so my apartment will be comfortable when I arrive home from work almost 10 hours later.

I walk past my three computers, which run 24 hours a day for my convenience, even though most of their time is spent completely idle. My DVR also stays on constantly so it can record many hours per day of South Park, Modern Marvels, and cop shows, of which I'll probably only watch 1 in 5 before they get deleted to make room for more.

While I don't drive to work, I'm in the minority. As I walk, city buses struggle through the thick traffic, often holding fewer than 10 passengers.

Soon, I arrive at work. Every computer in the office has been running all night so my coworkers don't need to log in and reopen all of their programs every morning.

Our office, like most modern office buildings, has windows that don't open. We've completely sealed ourselves off from the outside air. A heavy-duty HVAC system consumes most of the ceiling space and fills the office with the sounds of a subway tunnel. Even on the nicest days, when the temperature outside is perfectly comfortable, this HVAC system expends millions of BTUs to force the inside air to be a similar temperature. On the hottest days of the summer, the air conditioning cooled the office so strongly that many of us brought pants and sweaters to wear inside.

The windows are so large that during some morning hours, the sun shines in and produces glare on the computer monitors that face the windows. We installed massive blinds to combat this annoyance, but we usually forget to raise them after the problematic hours, so they stay closed for the entire day. To offset the forced lack of sunlight, our office is lit by hundreds of incandescent floodlight bulbs. Despite their extraordinarily wasteful energy consumption, we chose them over efficient fluorescent bulbs because they're more stylish.

Our salesmen, like most salesmen around the world, frequently fly across hundreds or thousands of miles simply to attend a 2-hour meeting then fly home. Such "business travel" represents a large portion of all domestic air travel. They can do this, instead of simply attending a conference call or videoconference, because the airfare is only a tiny fraction of the potential profitability of the deal.

After work, I often stop at the grocery store. It's the worst grocery store I've ever needed to patronize on a regular basis, but it still has most types of fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy, and grain products from across the world in every season of the year. I spend more for cellular phone, internet, and satellite TV services than I spend on food. Even if I had to cut my food expenses, I could just buy more of the cheap essentials instead of eating at restaurants so often. In the middle of January, I can buy 10 pounds of bananas that weren't grown on this continent with less money than I spent on lunch that day.

If I really needed a car, I could buy one within an afternoon. I could get a safe, efficient, reliable 4-door car with lots of perks and luxuries for monthly payments of less than a quarter of an average middle-class income - including insurance and enough gas to drive 1000 miles.

What does all of this have to do with peak oil?

I won't point fingers, but some people provide very convincing arguments that the peak and decline of global oil production is going to bring about the collapse of American society, starving most of our population and bringing forth a dark age that will last hundreds or thousands of years.

Spooky, isn't it?

The fundamental flaw in this argument is the assumption that our current energy use as a society cannot decrease, and that a minor change in energy prices will destroy our entire civilization.

Regardless of when it occurs, peak oil will only cause decreases of a few percent per year, at worst. If this happens, a lot of people will make a lot of noise, but fundamentally, we'll be fine. We won't starve to death if food becomes more expensive - we'll just be more conscious of what we eat, and maybe switch to a cheaper cable TV plan. We won't die if gas prices go up - we'll just stop buying huge SUVs and driving them on five unnecessary 1-mile trips every day.

As illustrated above, we have a lot of room for energy savings. We waste energy as much as we do because it's so cheap.

Eventually, we'll need to severely decrease our oil usage. But we'll have a long time to do it, and it'll happen gradually.

Maybe the "collapse of society" will force office buildings to install windows that can open to let in fresh air and sunlight for free. Maybe business people will stop flying around constantly in an age where we can transmit live, high-resolution video across the world using commodity hardware. Maybe we'll have to endure 80-degree houses in the summer. Maybe the simplest products won't be able to keep all 6 layers of plastic packaging. Or maybe we'll have to turn our computers off at night and wait an extra 45 seconds in the morning for them to start.

How awful.

It appears that most of us understand the size of the problem, and are finding solutions popping up, both micro and macro. Fortunately, many countries, primarily EU, are moving their infrastructure away from petroleum/ carbon based to at least something else. There is a great book for those of us who want to get off this continent to another with better survival possibilities. It is called Getting Out Your Guide to Leaving America. For those of us who chose to work in a community that is already making the changes.

For those of us who can not, or do not desire to leave, it appears to me we may be on the tipping point of finding civic leaders who are willing to pull our common energies and ideas together to form tactics and strategies for dealing with this transition. Or at least, incubators of common dialog among stake holders so that when Peak really starts to hit home in America, we will have candidates with a strategy to deal with this.
Food for discussion anyway.

Here in the relatively rural sector (upper Midwest), there are thriving (and I mean THRIVING) businesses selling home heating alternatives - outdoor wood-burning heating systems and indoor stoves which burn pellets and corn. That's right - corn. The same stuff the ethanol people want for their version of fuel and the hog farmers want for their fuel (feed) and the soft-drink industry wants for their fuel (sweetners) and so forth. Oh, and the human population that needs it for their traditional daily fuel be it tortillas or (gad!) cheese curls.
Now that fall is here, whenever I walk my dog I smell wood smoke from houses throughout the local city neighborhoods where the middle class is cutting and splitting their own home heating fuel, and I fear for the forests. Americans are cobbling together their own personal resonses to high heating costs.
If we are going to be able to justify a free market economy, we are going to have to have a much better representation of passive solar, (collective) waste heat scavenging and other budding technologies (which that free market system has so far treated as esoteric and, thus, prohibitively costly) made available in the marketplace.

We are truly in deep ca-ca.

Strange, isn't it, that we've heard nothing of peak oil or the mplications of global warming and resource depletion from the oil company representatives, I mean the Bush Administration. Precious little from too many of the Democrats.

Among the things we as a society need are land use planning that decreases energy use rather than increases it, mass transit planning on the scale of the interstate highway system post-WWII, moving away from oil use in non-energy uses, taxing wealth gained in the past 30 years from oil/natural gas/ coal.

Reclaim America has a good read on the Pentagon 2004(?) report on global warming. Combine the increased concentration of wealth in the US and elsewhere, the mobility of capital and the increasing hardships the vast majority of people in the world and even in this country will have due to the environmental and resource damage and depletion and there will be enormous repression and social unrest.

Is this a good time to say the tarriffs on cheap US subsidized corn grown by US agribusiness will come off in 2008, flooding the Mexican market, driving Mexican campesinos off the land, desperate to feed themselves and their families?

Maybe America's view of itself will resemble that Dorian Gray portrait in rapid aging?

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

good info.

Peak Oil is going to start messing up everyone's lives sooner than later. We don't have to run out before the scarcity and expense impacts the world's economy.

This ties in with warming intimately. When oil becomes very expensive and limited, do you think the people will resist burning more coal?

LISTEN UP, We Americans are not the only people on the planet. When Oil falls and your community is self empowered through independent eneryg systems. Like www.ecosoul.org. They are building Catalina Islands sustainable energy and water system. THOSE 5000 residence will be able to sustain. THe ones who empower themselves into their village wil be ready for the great nature shift of 2012. Thats right 2012 is the day the great shift back to natural patterns will come. So what next. What tool can break the fear, the consolidation that has you living in a system of slavery? Companies like Ecosoul and there ability to deregulate the energy industry by calling themselves Alternative Energy Environmental education centers. Its all about wording. If you say you are a co op energy farm you will face obsticals. This is the revolution. Im tired of the fear. IF I could get 5000 people at 80 grand a piece. I could build you one of ecosouls systems. And your products from your human and bio waste would turn into butanol at 130 dollars a gallon, or syngas, or hydrogen and even peet moss. All from your waste. When are Americans going to realize that Waste Management Systems is evil they are not about cleaning the environment without consolidation. We have to deregulate our power and become energy independent. I dont know what its going to take to create ecosouls energy systems for people to empower themselves. But at least I can outline the revolution which is much more than I can say for common dreams who think Israel is to blame for peak oil and terror in the world.

Peak Oil? I use Peak Anti-freeze.

Ask your friends and neighbors about Peak Oil and the usual reaction is about What? They are finally trying to wrap their minds around global warming, but ask them to consider two monumental problems at the same time and they will go back to their football or shopping.
"So, the oceans are going to rise and we are going to run out of oil, but not for a long time, so how does that affect me now?" Ho-hum. When they can't watch TV because there is no electricity and they can't go to the mall because there is no gas for their cars they will get the picture. But, not now. Sorry, they can't be bothered.

But this is indeed news of stupendous importance. Does it apepar in any US newspapers today?

ezeflyer,

Population control is nice, but mearly all that oil is being used by just 10-20% of the earth's population - and they nearly all live in countries which have stable populations. Also, the time frame for addressing global warming and peak oil is much less than a human life span - indeed less than a geeration, So how, again, is population control, going to address these probelms?

ezeflyer...absolutely correct...I just spent the last couple of days arguing the toss over excess deaths in the Iraq battle zone. Like this well written article on peak oil passing, coupled with your comments: the degree of denial in the overall population is unbelievably staggering..I don't want to go negative here but I'm beginning to wonder whether the 'homo sapien species' will survive the environmental catastrophe heading our way...

As long as people go against the science that says there are too many people on limited resources and that extreme resource concentration is democracy, war, famine, disease, crime and other natural population controls will rule.