Date: Mon, 7 Jun 2004 05:44:37 +0800
Subject: Re: The Idea of Peak Oil
From: Malcolm Riddoch <m.riddoch-AT-ecu.edu.au>



On Monday, June 7, 2004, at 01:42  AM, michaelP wrote:

> It's already been happening. Very good this enormously belated 
> recognition
> of the ludicrous stronghold the desire to go anywhere anytime anyhow 
> (cheap
> available oil) in those selfish old-fashioned disgusting machines 
> (cars) has
> on us 'civilised' humans.

More than just the price of petrol at your local bowser, cheap oil 
means cheap road/rail haulage and international shipping as well as air 
travel, it means cheap food produced by mechanised industrial 
agriculture and nitrogen based fertilizers, more than underwriting the 
value of the US dollar and economy it upholds the world stock markets 
and banking system. Cheap oil has paid for our modern lifestyles since 
WW2. The end of cheap oil will mean a lot more than just buying a 
hybrid fuel cell car or car pooling to avoid the petrol queues.

At worst it could mean a complete global economic collapse sometime 
after 2010, middle class poverty and the breakdown of law and order, 
massive starvation in the third world and the unrestrained outbreak of 
global warfare with the risk of numerous 'limited' nuclear 
conflagrations. I hope your superannuation funds are secure, maybe you 
should convert your stocks to gold and start hoarding canned food and 
bottled water for your cellar bunker. And remember, in the event of a 
nuclear detonation just 'duck and cover'.

>  So be it (as Nietzsche once said much better), if
> humanity perishes... All this hysteria over being able to go for a 
> cheap
> ride-thrill everyday in order to maintain some obscene notion of 
> freedom or
> to maintain wage-slavery in the same name of freedom, no matter what's 
> been
> obvious for decades if not generations.
>
> Fuck!

Agreed, although the problems of power were evident to Roman critics a 
couple of millennia ago, and their Greek counterparts before that. Some 
things never change, but the scale certainly has, it's planetary now 
and our technological overreach is becoming absolute.

> ps: sorry Malcom if I've not caught the entire drift of your piece but
> infuriated over this. As if that (the oil prob) were the actual real
> problem!
>
> What can you mean by "progress"?

Did I mention "progress"? And what do you think is the 'actual real 
problem' apart from peak oil? I'm not sure I catch your drift here 
Michael.

Cheers,

Malcolm



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