He was for legalizing Cannabis before he came out against it and I'm pissed off ! The good news is I'm banging my Congress reps and sens on this and will do the same to Obama even if he has a drug czar as VP. What does this have to do with Peak Oil? HEMP can replace petroleum 100%.

On the other hand, people take everything for granted. Back in my place, high volume traffic going to and from work is even nastier unless I go at 5 AM and every fucking day there's at least 4 major accidents and sometimes even explosions on the highway !! Sometimes, having to put up with 2.5 hour traffic jams when it should take me 40 minutes pisses me off to the point that I keep saying "GOD, PLEASE RAISE THOSE FUCKING GAS PRICES AGAIN !" There are more FRIVOLOUS drivers on the road than there are those going to work. I know this because back when the gas prices were way too high, traffic was reasonable. Now, it's back with bigger gas guzzlers selling and now more people are getting back to being totally dysfunctional by calling those of us who believe in alternative renewables, conserving, reusing, etc ... as "girlie men", "unpatriotic", "sissy", etc ... With such arrogance going on, I've felt like giving up and saying "LET THOSE MOTHERFUCKERS BURN IN HELL !"

And what about the mafia stampeding of that Haitian worker at Walmart by those arrogant shoppers? Folks, I hate to say it but America needs to be SEVERELY disciplined. I wished we wouldn't be headed for another Great Depression but these ignorant assholes seem to say otherwise and are happy to drag the rest of us into their mess !

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You've got a lot more research to do.

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It is called a security briefing. That he will share this information with the American people any time soon is doubtful. I would say probably his second year, at the State of the Union. Right now low gas prices are the only break the average Joe is getting. It would be refreshing to see him lay out all our problems now including the energy problem and the measures we need to take.

As far as the public going after him for breaking the bad news I don't see it. People, for the most part, have been exposed to the Peak Oil debate. Obama will just end the debate.

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This is definitely a Voice and Perspective that needs to be heard and Mr. Kunstler is one of the more eloquent and popular representatives of it.

This is the era of "change" (trans. Big S@*t Gowin' Down) on a scale, and at a level, that the Obamites have just begun to begin contemplating.

Kunstler's main thesis is that what is required is "making other arrangements" in both a Social and Structural sense.

The importance of this notion is that it re-enforces the idea that what we need is not just "greening" but "sustainability" at a deeper -and more fundamental- level.

Make no mistake my brothers and sisters, Sustainability is the foundation of an entirely new Culture. James Kunstler may be seen in the future as one of its conceptual "prophets" -though he would likely wish this were not so.

-matti.

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In 1981 and in 2008 the price of oil exceeded $100 per barrel and both years the economy went into the tank.
Deregulation has opened a futures market for oil that allowed speculators to ramp up prices worldwide. The pricing structure remains administered by big oil.
The actual cost of production is 5 cents per gallon and distribution adds another 7 cents to the total cost.
In Iraq the retail price at the pump is 12 cents. Most OPEC nations maintain this price level for domestic markets.
Gouging $2 to $4 per gallon from the public is fraud.
The $50 barrel is still priced for obscene profits. Spending $10 billions monthly to maintain a choke hold on foreign oil resources is the height of folly.
The 45% of voters who bought this program invite the Dark Ages to descend on us.

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Mr. Kunstler,

You are correct on all counts. And it is refreshing to see this articulated, and articulated so well. Somehow we must find a way to enable President Obama to himself recognize these truths, and to somehow prepare the public to accept them. A tall order.

I believe the human race has the intelligence to collect and interpret the evidence, but my faith is waning in our ability to move beyond denial, accept the facts and really alter our lifestyles. But let's keep pushing! It will take constant effort from everyone who understands there are limits to growth.

Dave Gardner
Producer/Director
Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity
Join the cause at www.growthbusters.com

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All that Obama should have to know about peak oil is what common sense tells him and that is there is no more land being made and there sure as hell won't be any more oil than what's in the ground now or has been from the beginning of time!

I guess our strategy of stealing other countries oil now and saving ours for later is the best way to go, this way we can stay in control and rule the world for eons.

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At one time in history, it was thought that it was impossible to travel faster than 12 miles per hour. Now, of course, 12 mph is considered to be very slow. The ingenuity and inventiveness of the human race prevailed. We may be running out of oil, but we'll think of something, as we always have.

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The extremes in Oil pricing has nothing to do with Peak Oil..!

It was and has all been do to the criminal manipulation of the commodities and futures market by Speculators..

The very fact that oil went up to nearly $150 per barrel and then yesterday is down to under $50.00 completely dissuades any argument this is even slightly related to Peak Oil...

It was never connected to supply demand and still is not otherwise our roads would be empty seemingly vacant deserted...like some George Romero flick..!

The worst part of this obfuscation by the Peak Oil Cult, is that they serve the very scoundrels and swindlers who pulled off one of the biggest rip offs in history, until the recent bail outs that is, with the meteoric rise of gas and oil prices we all saw due to the Commodities and Futures Modernization Act and Enron loophole..still not yet addressed by our Congress or Senate..!

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Coal isn't scarce. During WWII the Nazis made diesel fuel from coal. In poor countries, the price of oil has led to the denuding of wood from the land, both for more cash crops and for more fuel.

The problem with petroleum isn't exactly supply. The problem is that the alternatives heavily pollute and destroy the planet. So does petrol, to a good extent.

Wind and solar energy aren't scarce, but energy storage is one of the costs of using them. Replacing the first 30% of electricity with wind/solar is cheap and a no-brainer because coal/oil/LNG are stored energy. Replacing the next 60% is harder because we would have to build pumped hydro stations to store electricity, and the last 10% is very expensive.

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The Fed, operating through its intermediataries using tax payer money, has entered the futures market to "manage" the prices of various commodities including oil. As I had to point out to one bozo posting on Alternet, a futures contract has two elements: a "long" (betting on increased prices) and a "short" that may have to deliver the oil. The Fed (more likely JP Morgan) can buy up the short side of contracts with unlimited funds, forcing the price down and challenging the longs to buy the contracts back at a higher price for oil. Of course the Fed wins.

Problem is that we have a number of hostile oil producers who aren't interested in the virtue of lower prices. We may soon be facing a war of the futures, with hostile powers looking to force the US futures market out of existance.

That's what happens when you mess with Mr. Market.

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Dear Bloggers:

THE ANSWER TO OPEC AND PEAK OIL AGE IS AT http://www.energynews.gr

WHAT WE NEED IS AN International Public Prosecutor Intervention.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Basil Dimitropoulos
Electrical Engineer
104 - 106 Kremou Street, Kallithea, Athens 176-76 GREECE
TEL: +30-210-9590530

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Begin

A lot of readers are twanging on me for refraining to castigate President-elect Obama for deeds yet undone. They're discouraged by the advisors and cabinet sectetaries he's picked, ostensibly because the crew coming in are Washington "insiders," meaning they can't possibly see or do things differently.

My own starting point for this is the belief that in the years just ahead any sociopolitical entity organized at the giant scale will flounder -- this includes everything from the federal government to global corporations to factory farms to centralized high schools to national retail chains. So even expecting Mr. Obama's government to act effectively may be asking too much in a situation that will require mostly local action.

The meta-situation will be the overall decline of energy resources and the necessary downscaling of our activities. We are obviously in a transitional period between the old profligate energy economy and the new economy of relative scarcity. We have no idea how disorderly this transition will be, but there is certainly potential for tremendous instability in daily life.

For a while, perhaps, the federal government may retain some ability to affect the way things go, or give the appearance of doing so. This raises the issue of what Mr. Obama and his team really know about our energy predicament. The president-elect has made some noises -- recently on the 60 Minutes show -- that he understands something about the current price dislocations in the oil markets resulting from the larger financial turmoil. He alluded to the public's erroneous notion that current low-ish oil prices mean the oil problem is over.

But does the incoming president know some of the following details?

End

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Overpopulation is the word that I hope Mr. Obama understands, as in too many people for the planet to sustain in the long term. This is the driver of most of our problems and yet is unaddressed for the same reason, that we don't scare the populace with the truth of the matter.
Civilization is a 10,000 year mistake. Get the average intellectual's head around that one, let alone the common folk! We need a global effort of massive proportions to stabilize and then reduce population everywhere using education and birth control. Europe is on that path already. The U.S.(where half of pregnancies are accidental) and other nations need to follow suit. Even with that effort, we may still disentegrate as the population growth curve is very steep and is characteristic of an outbreak-crash curve.

Mr. O needs to read more than Doris Kearns Goodwin's book about Lincoln's rivals to make progress on this front. Maybe "One with Ninevah" by the Ehrlichs would help him more.
Maybe if someone will send Mr. O the following poem it will help facilitate his understanding. I don't seem to have the connections.
**************************************
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.

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The CHEAP, that is easily extracted oil is almost gone. There's plenty still left. I've read that as much as 70% of the oil is still there, but will be very expensive to obtain, but that isn't the point. Even if a cheap way to get to the more expensive oil is found, that doesn't change the fact that we can't keep polluting the Earth by burning this or that, and expect a good result from it. Energy production has to move away from the Combustion Age, and the sooner, the better.

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and if he doesn't, it isn't your fault Mr. K., nor the fault of any of the other brilliant people who participate in the films "end of suburbia" and "escape from suburbia."
it is scary stuff, but these two documentaries can be a big help for any communities willing to tackle sustainability.

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OilCrisis.org

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ALTERNET ... PLEASE STOP REGURGITATING THIS BLATANT, FEARMONGERING FALSEHOOD.. OIL AS FUEL COULD HAVE BEEN ABOLISHED 50 YEARS AGO.. OIL IS PRODUCED NATURALLY IN THE EARTH MANTLE LAYER AND REGENERATES,,, IT IS NOT A FOSSIL FUEL!

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Peak Oil is a myth so TPTB can make more. Do research and you will quickly find that not only does oil regenerate itself but it also would do no good to produce more, we haven't the refinaries process it. We have a little more than 1/2 the refinaries today that we had in 1970.

Technology has existed for 100 years for alternatives, H2O, zero energy motors, and so much more. Now problem is, all that develop this die prematurely or hide in fear for their life.

The alternative "they say" is coal, I assure you that is limited and destructive. Blowing the hell outta mountains, putting Mercury into the air, water, and soil will do much worse than oil ever thought of.

Carbon taxes? Look around...we are broke. Whenever I see stupid articles and stupid people I begin to agree with Kissenger and TPTB, depopulation may be the right way to go. Nature use to cull out these people, now we place laws and stickers so they can live longer. Peddle your NWO shit elsewhere, some of us have our head out of our ass.

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Hey, bring it on. And while we're at it, let's start by leveling the playing field by raising the inheritance tax about 500%. No excuse that the little rich brats can continue to play forever, generation upon generation, while everyone else is expected to make an honest living. Let's put an end once and for all to the little brats "born on third thinking they hit a triple."

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What the author is pointing out is what we all need to wake up to and what each of us will do when gas is $6 per gallon and heating oil is $2000 per tankful? We will all need to rewire our brains and lifestyles to adapt to these changes. We will not have a fossil fuel driving culture anymore when the oil crisis hits the middle and on down the consumer public ladder. That culture will all change. The airlines have said they will cut back flights and plane sizes even more next year. This is the future. The suburbs as a commuting community will die off. Those mega-homes will be cheaper than a backyard shed!

http://eye-on-washington.blogspot.com

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Anyone with a skerrick of logic or intelligence knows finite resources of all kinds means going, going, gone.
Bob Williamson
Founder & Chair
Greenhouse Neutral Foundation
www.strategicbookpublishing.com/ZEROGreenhouseEmissions.html

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Name ten smart things the owning class has done in the last 100 years regarding resource shortfalls and depletion. Name ten things "Mr. O" promised and then name the cabinet/advisory picks that counteract those promises.

See? Owning class people are having a major failure of imagination on a massive scale. That failure to comprehend even what is possible will be the death of many 'Merkaans.

We're already hearing the excuses and the sycophantic rationalizations of the libruls... oh wait, we progressives are just barbituates, silly me. Never mind, Mr. O. knows all and will save us from all our troubles... at least he's not Palin, right?

God damn 'Merkuh for her stoopidity.

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Yeah, we desperately need more mass transit infrastructure. We ought to use tax incentives as conservation incentives. We should all give a little more of a damn about how we use the energy we have.

You don't need to invoke speculative demons to do any of that. "Peak (!!!) Oil (!!!)!!!! Run children, run fast now!!!"

Yes, humans will exhaust the world's petroleum. National policies should be directed toward mitigating dangerous temporary shortfalls, and encouaging less consumption for 'the long emergency' that our grandkids will face with the prospect of continuing civilization in a world where a gallon of gas is (!!!) more expensive than a gallon of munincipal water on your grocer's shelf.

Boo!!!

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the world is coming to an end not because of peak oil,but the collapse of capitalism. Oil we can handle, it's the spectre of Karl Marx that we have to kick to the curb.

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He should knot know any more about peak oil then he does Santa Clause. Both are myths.

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