stuff most of you have read and seen before. just posting it for
the record that people are talking of peak oil and empire besides
us. does this article contribute anything new? doubt it, but here
it is:
Peak Oil and the End of Empire
by Charles Sullivan
http://www.opednews.com
Peak oil is most likely a term most readers have not heard before.
That is about to change. The concept is slowly making its way onto
the mainstream stage. It is intruding into the fringes of the public
conscience and soon it may occupy the greater part. When that time
comes, as it inevitably will, and probably sooner than you think,
the world as we know it will end.
Oil is the lifeblood not only of the U.S. economy—especially its
terrible military capability—it is in a very literal sense what
drives the global economy. Even small declines in oil extraction
(oil is not produced—it is extracted), have created major ripples in
the global economy. Remember the gas shortages and rationing that
occurred during the Carter Administration during the late 1970s?
All of the oil that exists is the product of complex ecological
processes: the decomposition of prehistoric plants and animals over
eons of time. There will never be any more oil than there is now.
There will only be less; and eventually there will be none. Peak oil
refers to the time when the rate of extraction from a specific
location (or the whole world) is at a maximum. Beyond the peak of
extraction follows a steady and continuous decline. In the U.S. peak
oil was reached in the early seventies of the last century. Since
that time extraction of all U.S. oil reserves has been steadily
declining, while demand has gradually increased. As more of the
world becomes industrialized and taps into the world's oil pipeline,
the more rapidly it is depleted. Once it's gone, it's gone. There
will never be any more.
The world's largest known oil reserves are in the Middle East--
specifically, beneath the desert sands of Saudi Arabia. Other
significant reserves exist in Africa, Venezuela, Asia, and Siberia
and in lesser amounts scattered across the planet. According to the
world's most highly regarded geologists, physicists and investment
bankers, those reserves are much smaller than originally thought.
Much of what remains is of poor quality, difficult to extract and
very expensive to refine. Globally, world peak oil may have occurred
as early as the year 2000. By the year 2020 global population will
have nearly doubled; and ever more underdeveloped countries will
come online. It should be obvious to any sane person that worldwide
demand for oil is severely outpacing supply. For every ten barrels
of oil used, only four barrels are being extracted and refined to
replace them.
Peak oil is a concept that is well understood by most governments.
The end of cheap oil means the collapse not only of the U.S. economy
but also the global economy. Alarm over peak oil is almost certainly
the hidden reason that the U.S. invaded Iraq. It is the reason we
are building fourteen permanent military bases in that country. The
U.S. has no intentions of ever leaving Iraq as long as one drop of
our precious oil lies beneath their sand. How our oil got beneath
their sand must have some cryptogamous connection to the ideology of
manifest destiny that has driven this nation to unthinkable crimes
against nature and humanity. It is the basis for World War Three,
which we may already have initiated with the U.S. occupation of
Iraq. Widespread resource wars will be the very predictable result
of the rush to extract the world's last remaining and dwindling oil
reserves.
Peak oil is almost certainly the underlying cause for the events of
9/11. The American people are not being told the truth. There is a
high probability that Oil men in high places of the U.S. government
orchestrated those events in order to get the American People behind
the invasion of first Afghanistan, then Iraq; and probably Iran,
Syria or North Korea will be next. Dick Cheney appears to be a
likely suspect, perhaps with the aid of Poppy Bush and his CIA
connections. They intend to get average American's used to the idea
of war that will not end in our lifetimes. The age of cheap oil is
nearing an end and the financiers of war and empire are scared
stiff. They will do anything to have access to the last dregs of oil
that can be sucked out of the earth, no matter which nations sit
atop them. The second largest reserves of oil happen to lie beneath
Iraq. The U.S. connections to the House of Saud are too well
documented to warrant discussion here.
Those who run America's shadow government, a coalition of the
world's wealthiest and most powerful people; including the Carlyle
Group and the Bilderbergers, know that we are addicted to oil,
especially cheap oil. The entire financial infrastructure of the
U.S. Empire and its global holdings, including its satellite
terrorist state, Israel, is on the verge of collapse. Those in power
are secretly panic stricken. America's unequalled military firepower
is utterly dependent on the life blood of cheap oil to keep the
machinery of run amok capitalism running. Given the atrocities that
the U.S. is inflicting with impunity around the world, there will be
hell to pay when that advantage is lost. Like an addict hooked on
Cocaine, those in power will do anything to get one more fix, cost
what it will. We are in for a rude awakening.
We must wake up to what kind of people we are dealing with. This
government is not only more criminal and corrupt than we imagine—it
is more criminal and illicit than we can imagine. Bush and company
make the mafia look like boy scouts. Let me try to convey some idea
of what I mean. The collection of thugs and criminals now running
the country are the greatest and most dangerous organized crime
syndicate in the world. And they possess the greatest arsenal of
weapons, many of them nuclear, that the world has ever seen. They
have an unparalleled propensity for violence. They are not who you
think they are; and they are not doing what you think they are
doing.
As world citizens we must come to our senses and cast off the
intoxicating lies we have been told about America's domestic and
foreign policies. We have built a self delusional culture of
mindless consumption of goods and services based upon the
exploitation of working class people and raw materials by the ruling
elite. It is in their interest, not ours', that the myths of America
as a democracy, as world emancipator of the oppressed were created.
They are mere folklore and powerful delusions that are based upon
lies and deceit in order to serve the purposes of empire; to keep
the poor in servitude to the rich and powerful. They were created so
that we can bear to live with ourselves. We are the slaves of modern
capitalism in all its horrible incarnations. Like Frankenstein, we
helped to create this monster and unleashed it upon the world. We
therefore bear the responsibility for bringing it under control and
making it accountable to the world.
It has been said that the truth will set us free. If so, and I
believe it will, it would behoove us to come to an honest reckoning
with the history we have chosen as a nation to create. Any truth is
better than make believe.
Charles Sullivan is a furniture maker, photographer, and free lance
writer residing in the eastern panhandle of West Virgina. He
welcomes your comments at earthdog@highstream.net
found at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_charles__060103_peak_oil_and_the_end.htm
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