Before the prices go through the roof.

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Glad to hear Clinton is speaking of such issues- but where was he during the years of his presidency? All that lost time- which the American public spent fixated on blue dresses and cigar tricks......

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There is no escape. We have waited far too long. If we listened to M. King Hubbert in the 70's, we could have done something about it.

It was dark, it was always dark these days. Even as the sun shone through the clouds in all its brilliance, it could not pierce the lingering cloud of depression. It had been 10 years since the last combustible engine had made its now unfamiliar rumble and the impact of economic collapse was in full bloom.



From Los Angeles to New York, there was an eerie, constant silence that seemed to permeate the conscious. As if humanity had been an industrial species from the beginning, the emptiness that was left to them was alien, forbidding, and lonely. To be sure, people would once again have to depend on their own creativity and ingenuity to entertain and sustain them, but the transition would not be easy. Madness was rampant and spreading fast like a communicable disease let loose in an airport. Those who remained in any civil sense were few and far between, and fortunate enough to see this coming and prepare. The other 99 percent of humanity hadn’t been so lucky, and now for them, life was a constant nightmare plagued by violence, starvation and insanity.



It may have been somewhat easier for many to form agricultural communities accept that the global corporations had destroyed any chance of that happening. With the advent of ‘Terminator’ seeds, there were few seeds to sow. This was a genetically modified organism or GMO seed that would grow a crop for only one season, producing sterile seeds that could not be replanted. Long before the collapse, there was some opposition to this technology, but any hope of saving the world for our children vanished when people were actually convinced to vote against their own interests. Of course they thought they were doing the exact opposite, but the government had lied, lied about the economy, lied about resources, or maybe told the truth in a subtle way exclaiming ‘Our way of life is not negotiable’. For many, it was a sad and scary time. They saw their democracy being ripped apart and sold to the highest bidder while everyone else just went along, believing the ‘free market’ was working in their interests. For even fewer people, in fact most of the people who had prepared in advance as best they could, it was peak oil, the end of cheap energy. At the time they were almost considered a fringe group by society, even as the leaders, whom have many deep ties to the Oil industry and the US military that protects it, stood in the background rewriting foreign policy in preparation for petrocollapse.



Reality always cathces up to us when consequences can no longer be ignored. Our only choice is to stop ignoring these issues and start changing our society, our lifestyles and our ability to preserve our planet for those generations yet to taste its quickly waning bounty.



Well, this is what we have to look forward to so don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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This article fails to mention the implications of Peak Oil which I will summarize here for educational purposes.

Everything that drives our economy, our factories, our cars, our agriculture, depends on cheap oil. Getting cheap things made in China depends on cheap energy for the long transport, not to mention Chinas booming economy is struggling with the same energy crisis. And then we get to Iran.... but I'll stop here. If you are as worried as you should be, here are some sites to ponder. This is a very depressing situation, but to continue ignoring or playing it down will surely spell doom for us all, if there is even a world left for us to inhabit after a possible nuclear war.

http://fromthewilderness.org
http://peakoil.net
http://dieoff.org

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This is a long ago story. In order to help understand it, check out the 1975 film "Three Days of the Condor" and you would find yourself in the midst of today's crisis. I won't reveal the plot's specifics - watch the film and cringe. When the end of the film nears, listen carefully to the dialogue between the film's Robert Redford's character and the film's character played by Cliff Robertson.
Then, in the light of 911 and its aftermath, you will understand what lies ahead unless the total seriousness of this situation is recognized and acted upon - by those who have the most to lose - the citizens.
America has always been a 'second chance' country, a country where impossible rescues occur, and so the county's citizens must decide what the freedom and dignity of their lives, the lives of their children and their grandchildren's are worth. Are they worth the fight to save the country and the freedoms upon which its foundation was built ? So where is that cherished document? Instead we read of the voices of self-elected wannabe demigods that America is now an 'empire' and can impose its own reality. And so a new reality is being imposed on the citizens and on the Constitution's worth.
Or are you just going to watch as that foundation and the structure which sits upon it comes toppling down on its own footprint. Again, and again and again. So listen to that movie's dialogue and see what you hear.
Then think of today and dare to ask some tough questions of yourself and your elected officials. At least take the necessary tough steps to ensure that they are YOUR elected officials. How many trillions of taxpayer's money are and will be spent on such wars as Clinton describes? What is the return on investment for the oil companies? And you? Where are your returns?
Given the actual scenario, there iseems to be NO timetable to implement an alternative energy policy let alone to actually make it happen. Remeber that the citizens have never voted for or against any major policies as of late, and so among other things there was only a rejection of the Kyoto Accord and an affirmation in the form of the Bush Doctrine to partake in a preemptive war against an enemy who is 'out there.' Sounds like X files talk.
Why not take the tax dollars - i.e. your yearly investments in your own well being and invest some of it in YOUR futures, not those of others? Or, do you think American scientists and engineers and their institutions are such a dried up hole that real steps towards a sustainable fuel will continue to be only read about in magazine articles?
Where are the American venture capitalist firms that would back such teams of young and old minds and hearts to make such a project happen? Otherwise,it will come only when the last battles in far off Mid East locales at the expense of the lives of your sons and daughters have been fought, after the last holes have dried up, only then again will you be told that the government has come to "rescue you". It will come to you with the voice of a benevolent benefactor.
Of course, again, the out of pocket price to you will be high, but you will be told that this energy will be clean, efficient etc. and so you, the citizens, will of course want to contribute to the saving of the country and the planet. Who knows how many lives will have been spent and at what astronomical figure your per capita debt will be by then? What a story. Problem is that it's not make-believe. So in the end there are many betrayed and many betrayers.
Fortunately, America is a great second chance country. Action makes the future possible. Just remember the truth of your favourite game: three strikes and you're out! What then?

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Yes, peak oil is upon us and most of us are probably doomed.

Yet even those who acknowledge our grim situation seem to overlook the key dynamic behind it all -- overpopulation!

The Age of Oil (if we can call 2 centuries an "age") was directly responsible for our population multiplying many times! The 20th century alone saw our numbers quadruple, and that would not have been possible without the fleeting bonanza of oil.

It would have been so easy to avoid -- birth control is astonishingly cheap compared to the Sisyphean folly of accommodating growth.

As Martin Luther King (yes, Martin Luther King!) put it:

“Family planning, to relate population to world resources, is possible, practical and necessary. Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not yet understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution, but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the billions who are its victims."

Tragically, the Left sabotaged all that in the 1970's when it forcibly disconnected ecological considerations from family planning. It was deemed too "coercive" to tell people that their overbreeding might have catastrophic consequences. Well, comrades, you got your wish -- you sabotaged ecologically-based birth control -- and you will now savor your Pyrrhic victory.

Enjoy!!

-- Pat Kittle

PS: History will reveal you to be responsible for our oncoming nightmare along with the corporate endless-growth sociopaths.

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