Brilliant Peak Oil Infographic...

This graphic created by CarSort.com does a great job summarizing the predicament humanity now faces.

One thing very interesting to note is that in 1956 M.K. Hubbert was able to accurately predict US Peak Oil production would peak in 1970 to within a few months.  Now, because "official" oil reserve statistics are so widely and heavily manipulated, the closest we can come to predicting when Saudi Arabia will hit peak oil is "at some point between 2012 aned 2017."

Peak Oil is very real and it will drastically affect your own life within the coming months and years... whether you know it or not, it already has.

I can remember $0.89 per gallon gasoline when I first started driving in the late 1990s.  Right now gas is at $4.00 per gallon and it is going to keep going up.

Oil fuels 98% of global transportation, and the US is already fighting multiple wars to secure far flung oil supplies.  The impact of decreasing oil production on global economies and geopolitical stability is one of the most important issues to consider today.

CarSort's

ELENIN ALIGNMENT DISINFO FAIL!!! What's next?

phhhhhht! (horse fart)

Over the last 48 hours I've spent as much time as possible at Sea Level straddling California's infamous San Andreas Fault just to spite the DISINFO TROLLZ behind the whole "Comet Elenin Alignment, Mega Earthquake/Tsunami, Earth Splits Open and Swallows Everyone Except the Bunker Bound Zillionaires" shhhhhpeel because both you and I know that's a crock of shit.


Sure, we may get hit by any number of natural disasters, but what's the point in worrying about something so completely beyond your control that it's inconsequential whether you're aware of it at all?


All the CHATTER about mega disasters
and aliens
and polar shifts
and planetary alignments
and solar flares
and the Chinese Taliban coming to take your Baby away is just distracting people from the one aspect of our predicament that we can actually do something about.


I speak of the utterly corrupt and fundamentally flawed economic system which we've all been trapped within since the Creature from Jekyll Island was born in 1913.

0fficer Bologna

Utterly corrupt?  Sure, the Über-wealthy CorpoGov Banksters are currently above the law!
They can create money out of thin air.
They control the political process.
They blatantly manipulate financial markets with no fear of legal retribution.
They control the media and have been caught recently censoring dissenters.
They can literally get away with murder.
And if you try to do something about it they'll beat your ass and throw you in jail.

Exhibit R: NYPD Deputy Inspector Anthony Bologna pepper spraying innocent, compliant young women at #OccupyWallStreet.


Fundamentally flawed?  Absolutely.  See the upper left hand column of this blog for this position's support.

Why do you think we're fighting so many goddamn wars while drilling for oil in the most difficult and dangerous places on the planet.  I rest my case.


The ONLY painful, impending, and devastatingly deadly predicament we can do something about is the COLLAPSE of the Global Economy due to simple economic fundamentals, inconceivable corruption, and mass psychosis.


Need a refresher course in REALITY?  Here you go.  Humanity's Current Predicament 101:


EMBED MOVIE "COLLAPSE"


Well, shit, I can't seem to find a single copy of Collapse for free online.  That's funny, because the Producer who holds all the rights to that movie stopped fighting Piracy of Collapse over a year ago.  No one from his operation is complaining, yet countless copies have been taken down over the last months.


The few YouTube videos pretending to offer an outside link to the film Collapse are blatantly sketchy... shortened links to strange dead ends.  Anywhere, here's the trailer...



The problem is a fundamental disconnect between our collective consciousness and reality.  We thought we could have our cake and eat it too.  We became a CANCER upon this beautiful, life-giving planet.

Our changeable predicament is rooted entirely in our unwavering belief in INFINITE GROWTH ECONOMICS despite the all-too-real natural limits of the planet.

Want to know who the high priests of this bassackwards, cancerous, indeed suicidal religion are?

Want to know what you can do about it?

Here you go...

VIDEO: MSNBC Reporter SLAMS NYC Police Brutality on #OccupyWallStreet Protesters

Must See Video from AmpedStatus.com and MOXNEWS YouTube Channel...

Colbert Report Interview: James Howard Kunstler on Resource Depletion and Supply Chain Management

I can't believe today is the first I've heard of this brilliant 2008 interview on the Colbert Report.

I guess that's because while oil hit $147 a barrel and gasoline hit $5 a gallon here in the USA, I was lounging in paradise after fleeing the imploding economy.

Perhaps you should consider doing the same now that it's the Fall of 2011 and we're going off a much bigger cliff this time.

Check it out...

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Ron Paul: "Mutually Assured Destruction vs Mutually Assured Respect" Hint: Destruction Would Suck.

Congressman Paul nails the situation in this video.  Let's work together to make Mutually Assured Respect the path we take together through whatever comes next.

Hey Unemployed Social Networkers and Online Marketers: Here's a Novel Concept... Get Paid to Tell the Truth!

If you want to know what's really going on in the world today, watch Chris Smith's award-winning 2009 documentary COLLAPSE.  Roger Ebert gave it 4 STARS and a rave review.

You can watch the whole movie right here!





If you can accept the logical worldview laid out in Collapse, you're well on your way to understanding what's actually going on right now.

Civil unrest spreading around the world? Check.
Tensions building between the US, China, etc?  Check.
Big fluctuations in oil and food prices?  You know it.
Record extreme weather events and natural disaster losses? Check.
Are the rich getting much richer while the poor are getting poorer? Sadly, YES.
Did the DOW just drop 512 points today 8/4/11? Indubitably.
Are the talking heads spouting "Recession" again even though -- for most Americans -- it's felt like a depression since 2008?  No doubt about it.

Well, despite the shit sandwich humanity is currently eating, today is YOUR LUCKY DAY!

Get paid to tell the truth.
Get paid to wake people up to REALITY.
Get paid to spread awareness, restore sanity, stop wars, and save lives!
Get paid to build the *New Media* while simultaneously sticking it to "The Man!"

How, you ask? Simple.  Promote COLLAPSE's subject Michael C. Ruppert and his latest project CollapseNet.com.  Through the new CollapseNet Affiliate Program you will earn 20% commissions on new members.  This isn't a multi-level-marketing strategy.  If you send traffic to CollapseNet, your information is stored in their Cookies, and you'll get a 20% cut when they sign up.

Annual memberships are $100, so each new subscriber gets you $20. 

Get Paid to Wake People Up and Save Lives: Join CollapseNet's Member Referral Program from CollapseNet.com on Vimeo.

For more info on the new CollapseNet Affiliate Program go here...

Redesigning RESPECT! 1976's Winona: Towards An Energy Conserving Community

I used to love strolling though the stacks of the Alcuin Library in Collegeville, Minnesota.  Though uncomfortably modern, the massive building housed a world-renowned collection of ancient manuscripts.  It's brutally minimalist architecture demanded respect.


As I fished for knowledge, it always floored me how painfully irrelevant or misleading the majority of books seemed.  A minority of books caught my eye, a select few proved captivating, and the occasional gem would boost my faith in humanity.


The Alcuin Library basement is an underground bomb shelter of smooth grey concrete lined with endless stacks of ancient books.  Well, ancient by my standards, anyway... and spanning the spectrum of topics which had been banished to "The Dungeon".  Most of the books down there were nonsensical, incomprehensible, or worse, but The Dungeon also yielded  the sweetest fruits.  That's where I discovered Thoreau's Journal, Paolo Soleri's Arcosanti, and the under-appreciated works of Kurt Vonnegut.

I'll never forget finding one of the greatest books I discovered in college.  It jumped out at me from the discard stack, so I bought it for a quarter.  The soft cover, coffee-table-sized book caught my eye because my hometown's name graced it's cover.  WINONA: Towards an Energy Conserving Community.

The book is the product of a year's work (1974-75) by the Energy Design Studio at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture.  A group of graduate students under the guidance of visionary architect Dennis R. Holloway modeled the transition of Winona, MN towards sustainability.  It was written in response to the energy issues America was facing at the time due to US domestic oil production decline after it's 1970 peak and unpredictable oil prices due to the mid-70s' OPEC oil embargo.  

In Winona: Towards An Energy Conserving Community they laid out the blueprint, timeline, and motivation for turning my hometown of 30,000 people into a self-sustaining, re-localized community.  All the particulars of Peak Oil were explained lucidly.  The integrated solutions we needed to transition towards sustainability were showcased thoroughly.  Basically, everything we should have started doing 25 years ago was laid out in great detail in that 35 year old book.

This visionary work by University of Minnesota architecture students would have been so inspiring to read in the year of my birth, 1981.  When I stumbled across it in 2004 it spoke more of humanity's greed, foolishness, and capacity to deny the obvious.  Though so simple a child could understand it, this book was apparently so ahead of it's time that even now most people haven't awakened to it's truths.

The collective consciousness has been so thoroughly raped by misinformation, distraction, and spin that obvious solutions to obvious problems meet near universal resistance.  Humanity seems bent on doing things the hard way.  Let's change that.

Here's a good place to start... even if we are 35 years late to the Appropriate Technologists' Party.

More pages of Winona: Towards an Energy Conserving Community are available here.

Note the graph of Peak Fossil Fuel Usage behind these guys hand-stenciling letters on a display back in the mid-70s'.  We got the point then, so why can't we admit it again now?

And remember: always check the discard pile.  How's that old saying go?  Oh yeah...

300 YEARS OF FOSSIL-FUELED FUN IN 5 MINUTES

In other news, it's good to see this crew digging their own graves.

See, it's DOCUMENTED that BUSH and CHENEY knew all about Peak Oil by early 2001.  In fact they based their most critical actions upon it.  Why did they lie to us and force America into two endless wars in the Middle East?


OIL, obviously.

I'm not opposed to fighting for something we need, but it'd make a heck of a lot more sense to stop pretending we need it.  I don't.  You don't.  Only THEY do... and only to build something they've already got too much of: WEALTH and POWER.

Sick Bastards.  Let's all help them get better.  Well, at least the next crop...

Cheney looks like he's on his last legs... so long... I hear Hell's hot this time of year.

Clearly Laura and Condi have never used a shovel before in their lives...

The Great American Wank Up Call: Jerk the Jerkoffs Off the Road

I’m in a LOVE/HATE relationship with cigarettes, alcohol, adrenaline, and the internal combustion engine.  My name is Max Mogren, and I'm a struggling Oilaholic.

Thirteen years ago when I started driving, gas was only 89 cents a gallon.  Talk about cheap thrills!

I remember the day I got my driver's license.  It lingers in memory like the first time I got laid, exceptional trips, mind-blowing concerts, getting shacked, and magic moments shared with good friends in perfect snow.  At the impressionable age of 16, gaining all that POWER and FREEDOM was an intoxicating experience.

It's no wonder most Americans suffer from a nasty driving habit: we were all just kids when we first got hooked.

I love jumping behind the wheel and cruising off on adventures, but hate flushing my money down the tank.  I appreciate the modern conveniences that fossil fuels provide, but hate how lazy and entitled we've become.  Most importantly, the environmental destruction of our collective Oil Addiction is too blatant to ignore, and that same Oil Addiction undeniably prompts our endless, blossoming wars.

Kurt Vonnegut explained our predicament in his last book, A Man Without A Country:

We are all addicts of fossil fuels in a state of denial, about to face cold turkey. And like so many addicts about to face cold turkey, our leaders are now committing violent crimes to get what little is left.

Yours Truly During Dumber Days In Baja: It's not my truck, but I did saw the roof off.

Contrary to popular disbelief, there isn't that much Oil left, especially when you consider skyrocketing global demand.  Chinese consumers bought 8.7 million new automobiles in 2007, 9.4 million in 2008, 13.8 million in 2009, and are expected to buy 16 million more by the end of 2010.  Here in the US, we buy about 11 million new vehicles annually, excluding snowmachines, RVs, motorcycles, quads, viagratized golf carts, and other frivolous crap.

China already uses more total energy than we do, and it’s thirst for oil is rapidly approaching our own.  Factor in everything else dependent on oil, and it’s no wonder that humanity uses 85 million barrels PER DAY.

Despite all the hype, only 3% of energy consumed by the USA comes from “green” power sources like wind and solar.  Ethanol is a cruel joke.  It takes more fossil fuel energy to produce ethanol than one gets from burning it.  Turning all that corn into moonshine drives up global food demand and literally prices the planet's poorest people right out of existence. 

This is no doubt troubling, but what really concerns me is that oil demand keeps rising though global oil production peaked in 2005.  Militaries, governments, and corporations have announced that production will soon start declining.

No matter how deep we drill, how much groundwater we ruin by fracking, or how big the slag heaps of processed tar sands become, we already struggle to maintain adequate supply.  Conservative estimates predict a 3-5% decrease in Global Oil Production annually.

Not One Of My Prouder Moments...

Best case scenario, by the year 2030 7+ billion people are peacefully sharing HALF the oil we now consume.  Worst case scenario, in the near future fossil fuel dependent economies collapse further, and energy issues kick off a global resource war.  Unless a massive shift in consciousness occurs around the world, our lust for Oil will be our destruction.

Across Our Nation, a hundred million people drive like fucking idiots.  They treat their vehicles like extensions of their sex organs and assume throttling around at 75 is a god-given right.  They rarely leave home without an automotive exoskeleton and go barreling through life with no plan and minimal awareness.  These people are JERKOFFS, stroking their egos at the expense of international security.

Mountain towns are by no means immune to this sub-human species.  Each summer we’re visited by hordes of arrogant Wino-Dinos piloting absurdly wasteful RVs.  Year round we’ve got jacked up pickup trucks, suburban assault vehicles, solo drivers in empty cars, and frivolous waste of all kinds.  Even on the sweetest spring days, 95 of a hundred Rocky Mountain people putz around behind the wheel when a bike, skateboard, moped, or their own two feet would easily do the trick.

If driving all over the place every fucking day wasn’t so accepted, our friends and neighbors would stop jerking off with the most precious resource on the planet.  Given the seriousness of the global energy crunch, it is our sacred duty to let them know that frivolous fuel consumption is a Highway to Hell.  I am therefore proposing the Great American Wank Up Call: JERK THE JERKOFFS OFF THE ROAD.

Exhibit A: Foolish Person Jerking Off.

The middle finger is offensive, but the universal sign for JERKING OFF is hilarious.  Wherever you find yourself reading this, go ahead and try it.  If you want to get really sassy, cap it off with a flourishing spurt like Leslie Chow in the desert scene of The Hangover.

When you’re walking, skating, biking, or carpooling and you spot absurd vehicles or wasteful behavior, proudly raise your arm and vigorously alert the community to the presence of JERKOFFS.  Perhaps point at the offender with one hand while stroking the sky with the other.  Once you’ve got their attention throw a spurt into a wave as they roll on by.

If they slam on their brakes to confront you, whip out a digicam and catch their antics for digital distribution.  Try to explain your reasoning as best you can.  If they’re bent on a fight, let them swing first and then beat the piss out of them.  Sometimes tough love is the only way to get your point across.

Peace.

Essential Read: An Oil-Thirsty America Dived Into "Dead Sea"

Bill Clinton sealing the Gulf's fate with the Grand Teton looking majestic (as always) in the distance.

Wall Street Journal... cover story... 10/10/10... An Oil-Thirsty America Dived Into "Dead Sea"

Read it.  Analyze it.  Do the math and figure the situation out for yourself.

My own assessment is this.  Our childish excuse for an economic model hit an energy ceiling in 2008.  Remember $147 barrels of oil in July, 2008?  No!?  Remember paying $4.50+ at the pump that summer?  I thought so.

It's no coincidence that our economy shit the bed shortly thereafter.

Money doesn't make an economy grow.  Energy does.  Without an affordable, reliable, and GROWING energy supply, growth-based economies fail.  There's no such thing as a free lunch, and - contrary to popular belief - one cannot build something out of nothing.  When oil supply can't meet demand - and it's happening again right now - our economy is guaranteed to stall if not collapse.
 
Why are we dangerously drilling two miles underwater to get oil?  Why are we destroying pristine areas and wasting massive amounts of energy and water harvesting tar sands?  Because we think we need to.  Pending massive societal changes, we do need to.

No matter what we exploit, no matter how deep we drill or how crazily we search, continuing down this path is a guaranteed loss.  All extreme extraction efforts only stall our fall from oil's global production peak plateau.  Once humanity heads down that slope, all certainty flies out the window.

It's time to stop "needing" all that oil.  It's time for massive societal changes.  We can't "grow out of" the current depression because as soon as we start growing, our oil needs hit the very real ceiling of limited supply.  We can't even stay as big as we are because that ceiling is starting to drop.

 Read it.  Analyze it.  Acknowledge it.  Change yourself and start talking shit.  Our leaders have to wake up to reality... but odds are they won't.

The Fall of 2008 will look like a cakewalk compared to what the next few years will hold.

Prepare yourself.

Educators!  Get this for your "classroom"! OILPOSTER.ORG

A Letter to An Old Friend...

Dear XXXXXXXXX

Thanks for the reply. It's great to hear from you.  I'm glad you found the movie Collapse interesting.

I appreciate your thoughts on renewable energy and technology.  I agree completely on the potential for it to swoop in and save the day.  My confidence fails entirely on the likelihood of that happening. I think that "silver bullet" will come along too late for most people due to inherent flaws in and policies dictated by our economic and government systems.

It blows my mind how we spend a trillion+ annually on defense and fighting "terror" because most of that money is just a necessary expense for modern oil acquisition.  That money could be crucial in shifting to sustainables, but it's going down the crapper.

It also boggles my mind how we've recently created trillions out of thin air -- adding it to the national debt and the taxpayer's bill -- yet that money goes straight into the pockets of the TOP DOGS of our economic Ponzi scheme.  A trillion dollars is enough money to put $3,333.33 in the pockets of 300,000,000 Americans.  That's a hell of a lot of money and it's all going to the big boys.  Meanwhile, the average American's dollar gets weaker because the wealthiest 1% is flooded with new cash.

If our leaders wanted to get serious about renewable energy, there'd be tens of thousands (or more) new jobs right now advertising, manufacturing, installing, and servicing solar/wind/geothermal/etc. They'd be installing solar panels along every stretch of highway in the southern deserts to fuel SOCAL, VEGAS, PHOENIX, etc. They'd be throwing up wind turbines across the plains of the Midwest and off the East Coast.

They would incentivize and subsidize renewable energy and sustainable living.  Instead they continue subsidizing oil with absurd amounts spent every year on defense, road construction and maintenance, and tax incentives for Americans to buy new automobiles.

In reality, there's nothing major in the works and renewables only account for 3% of US energy consumption. Hydroelectric makes another 3% but I hardly consider all those dams a good thing.

When I try to look at the biggest picture, I can't help but think that the BIG DOGS know exactly what they're doing. Most people assume the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet are morons. I assume that they're manipulative and conniving: after all, the richest .5% has gotten 27% WEALTHIER since 2008... and that's just the money on the books. Meanwhile, the average American is getting fucked... lucky if they can find a shitty job where they're paid peanuts.

My guess is that our economic and political elites have taken the advice of a supercomputer modeling program and sick bastard "experts" in the field of global relations.  Also, many of them take the Book of Revelations literally and honestly believe we're living at the "end of days".

We have supercomputers and trend modeling programs capable of giving a good idea where humanity is at and where it's going.  If someone with deep pockets put this program to work analyzing the human condition and the global situation what would it say?

My guess is this: Planet Earth is dying due to Overpopulation, Overpollution, and Overconsumption. So if the BIG DOGS want to "save the planet"-- and their own selfish, sorry asses -- what do they do?

Well, both the computer modelling and the "experts" say:

*Devalue the currency.
*Consolidate wealth in the hands of less than 1% of the population.
*Cut wages, jobs, and take away social benefit programs.

*Pay lip service to "sustainability" and "green power" to keep the masses hopeful but put no real money into it.
*Saddle people with toxic debts (mortgage crisis) so they're forced to slave within the system to stay on the right side of the law.
*Jack up the cost of all basic goods: food, electricity, fuels, etc.
*Take away poor people's spending power and literally price them out of existence.
*Destabilize the world economy leading to chaos, widespread poverty, starvation, war, revolt, and a whole lot of human suffering and death.

*Feign concern and/or play dumb.
*Sit back at the mansion in a secluded spot like Jackson Hole and watch the carnage unfold.

*If the local situation gets ugly, hop in the private jet and fly off to somewhere safe.

And a few years down the road when 90+% of the world population is gone, they think they'll be sitting pretty.  But the planet will be utterly trashed and every poor person still living will know exactly who is to blame.

I think Busta Rhymes described the situation best in the intro to Extinction Level Event.... not entirely true -- and no doubt doomy -- but truer by the day.

Enjoy!

The Zeitgeist Films: Watch Them Right Here.

If you're not familiar with Peter Joseph's ZEITGEIST Trilogy of films, you should probably watch them soon.

2007's Zeitgeist: The Movie takes a critical look at where the world was headed then.

2008's Zeitgeist: Addendum continues where the first one left off.  If you want to know what's going on with the economy right now, this film will help you make basic sense of it all.

The soon to be released Zeitgeist: Moving Forward will offer humanity a roadmap out of the catastrophe spawned by a corrupt and outdated system.

You can watch the first two films in their entirety right here.  The trailer for the third film is also available.  It comes out in January, 2011.

Zeitgeist: The Movie - 2007 by Peter Joseph from ZeitgeistMovie.com on Vimeo.



Zeitgeist: Addendum - 2008 by Peter Joseph from ZeitgeistMovie.com on Vimeo.



Zeitgeist: Moving Forward | Official Trailer- [ Extended ] from ZeitgeistMovie.com on Vimeo.

End of the Oil Age Gear Guide: You Need A Solid Bike.

I just finished this one for CleanSnipe.  Whaddya think?

End of the Oil Age Gear Guide: You Need A Solid Bike.

by Max Mogren

October 4, 2010

The Roots of Our Discontent

As I've learned from recent comments, many of you think I'm a paranoid conspiracy theorist or wanna-be doomsday prophet.  Given all the mainstream and alternative press devoted to crackpot theories, your assumption is understandable.


With all the disinformation being spread, it's easy to lump a THINKER like me with the Mayan Calender literalists, Bible literalists, Koran literalists, stereotypical survivalists, whiney bitch liberals, infinite-growth economists, or other DOGMATIC WACKOS.

Perhaps you picture me hunkered down fearfully awaiting a shift in Earth's magnetic field, the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera, a large meteorite impact, a plague of biblical proportions, or some other massive natural disaster.


That couldn't be any further from the TRUTH.  I couldn't CARE LESS about those commonly held fears. 


My concerns for our collective future have nothing to do with ancient prophecies, astrology, religion, or some variation on god's revenge.  None of us has any control over solar flares, planetary magnetism, super-volcanoes, meteorites, etc.  If one of these commonly feared things were to take us down, I could die happily knowing it wasn't our fault. 


After all,

.

What gets my goat is our collective failure to address glaringly obvious and inevitably catastrophic problems we do have control over.


These problems aren't new or overly-complicated.  We've had solid knowledge confirming their existence for decades.  Hell, these problems are so apparent a clued-in person can hardly escape their awareness... and being aware of them is very painful.  It's no wonder most people spend very little time THINKING about the big picture.


Fortunately, - over the last FIVE DECADES - numerous wise people have addressed these problems and offered brilliant solutions.


Sadly, the rest of us have largely ignored these problems as we ignore so many other inconvenient and uncomfortable truths about OURSELVES.

Here in the USA, the ROOTS of our catastrophic problems are simple and few:


1) Unrealistic economic models,
and
2) Absurdly wasteful ways of life.  Please let me explain...

The inherently flawed Dream in which We Americans have placed our hope is rooted in the concept of INFINITE GROWTH.   Dr. Seuss once explained this to the kid in all of us:

"Business is Business and Business must grow."

The road to INFINITE GROWTH is paved with short-sighted development, wasteful resource consumption, and the buying and selling of a whole lot of unnecessary shit.

INFINITE growth is impossible on a FINITE planet.

The more we develop, the more we destroy.

The wealthier we become, the more we waste.

The faster we move, the more we pollute.

The stronger we git, the more we suffer from arrogance.

Most importantly, the deeper we dig, the less we have left.  

No sane human denies that Our Nation is entirely dependent upon absurd quantities of fossil fuels.  The same TRUTH applies to all industrialized nations.  WE ARE ALL using up massive amounts of irreplaceable energy.


This energy MUST flow perpetually from reliable sources.


If supply can't meet demand, things get ugly.  Shortages result, prices go up, economies flounder, conflicts intensify, "quality of life" drops, and the poorest people suffer most.  Worst case scenario international conflicts escalate which further limits available supply and perpetuates human suffering.


In a modern war - economic or escalated - one of the most effective strategies is to cut off your enemy's energy supply.  History shows this tactic's success countless times.

Not a baby food factory.

Many a castle was seiged with STARVATION.
Many a city overrun by BLOCKADE.
Many a nation crushed through EMBARGO.  
Many a corporation crippled by SUPPLY CHAIN SABOTAGE.


History's most dramatic reminder of this tactic's success is the Nazi defeat in WWII.  A crucial turning point came when well orchestrated Allied bombing cut Axis oil supplies by up to 80%.


After that, the Nazis could barely afford to fly their planes, drive their cars, heat their homes, or run their country, let alone fight a WORLD WAR.

GAME OVER FOR HITLER.

The obvious targets in a MODERN RESOURCE WAR - which could quickly escalate into WWIII - would be oil wells, refineries, pipelines, ports, tanker ships, mines, railways, etc.  Here in the US, much of our energy comes from far flung points on the Earth, offering ample opportunity for enemies to fuck with our shit.

Figures on this 2008 map are in thousands of barrels per day.  Note that the US imported over 60% of the oil it consumed in 2007.  Also note that our known domestic reserves will be entirely depleted in ~10 years if we maintain 2008 rates of production.  If things stay close to the same, by 2020 we will have to import almost 100% of all oil we use.


Clearly things CANNOT stay the same.

Concern over the obvious issue of oil dependency is the reason why many of our most enlightened scientific and political leaders have been SCREAMING - for decades - ...

"WE NEED TO GET OFF FOREIGN OIL."

Even the MORONS have addressed the importance of decreasing our dependence.  In fact, all of our last 8 PRESIDENTS have publicly acknowledged the issue.  Notice that though they made ridiculous claims to the contrary, our dependence on foreign oil has increased steadily.  Check it:


President Richard Nixon (in 1974 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources): “At the end of this decade, in the year 1980, the United States will not be dependent on any other country for the energy we need.”

President Gerald Ford (in 1975 with 36.1% of oil from foreign sources): “We must reduce oil imports by one million barrels per day by the end of this year and by two million barrels per day by the end of 1977.”

President Jimmy Carter (1979, 40.5% of oil from foreign sources): “Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977 – never.”

President Ronald Reagan (1981, 43.6% of oil from foreign sources): “While conservation is worthy in itself, the best answer is to try to make us independent of outside sources to the greatest extent possible for our energy.”

President George Bush (1992, 47.2% of oil from foreign sources): “When our administration developed our national energy strategy, three principles guided our policy: reducing our dependence on foreign oil,…”

President Bill Clinton (1995, 49.8% of oil from foreign sources): “The nation’s growing reliance on imports of oil… threatens the nation’s security… [we] will continue efforts to…enhance domestic energy production.”

President George W. Bush (2006, 65.5% of oil from foreign sources): “Breakthroughs…will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025.”

President Barack Obama (2009, 66.2% of oil from foreign sources) “It will be the policy of my administration to reverse our dependence on foreign oil while building a new energy economy that will create millions of jobs.”


But We haven't changed anything. We haven't even made a legitimate effort.


In fact - and this is what really SCARES ME - the brunt of Humanity is DOZING OFF as we sink beyond oil's global production peak.  On the downslope of this predictable bell curve the supply of oil available at any future point in time is guaranteed to be less than we currently extract.

This isn't rocket science.  It's basic supply chain management.  BELIEVE IT!


If you need proof, history provides a very clear example of the bell curve oil production follows.  All we have to do is look at US domestic oil production because that PEAKED in 1971.

We're also offered rather conclusive proof that GOOD POPULAR MUSIC is a thing of the PAST.  There's no denying that. ;-)


Here's an interesting graph that lists important countries' oil peaks and factors that into the bigger picture of overall global supply.  Each individual country's DOCUMENTED peak year is listed after it's name.  Note that Alaska is listed separately from the United States, and that it's peak production year came way back in 1989.

By these numbers we're ALREADY A FEW YEARS PAST PEAK OIL PRODUCTION and the downward tend of decreasing production is accelerating.  Since oil is crucial to INFINITE GROWTH ECONOMICS this timing meshes well with the GLOBAL ECONOMIC DEPRESSION we've been experiencing lately.


So yeah, US Oil Production peaked long ago and GLOBAL Oil Production is currently at or beyond it's peak.  There is absolutely NO DOUBT that the amount of oil available at any given future point in time is going to DECREASE both RAPIDLY and SIGNIFICANTLY.  No matter what we do, no matter what technology we develop, no matter how badly we trash the planet trying to suck every last drop of retrievable oil from it, we are guaranteed shortages of our most crucial resource.  That's just the way it is here on a FINITE PLANET.


I'm sorry to burst your precious little bubble of HOPE, but TRUTH is more important.


Meanwhile, global demand for energy is SKYROCKETING as rampantly developing countries - most notably China - mimic our American example and embrace an energy-intensive, CONSUMERISM-based society.

Notice that Chinese energy consumption DOUBLED in the last DECADE.

Now, returning to OIL in particular, let's look at Chinese consumption for the recent past.

Between 1980 and 2006, Chinese oil consumption QUADRUPLED!


If we look at future projections, we witness the TRAGIC DISCONNECT between PLANNING and REALITY which is at the root of our CURRENT DEPRESSION and could very well catapult humanity into WORLD WAR III.

These projections are from 2009.


Despite the fact that we are now at or beyond PEAK OIL, the US Energy Information Administration is putting out blatantly impossible projections of future oil consumption.  SInce  we are already using the maximum amount of oil that we can extract from Planet Earth at any given point in time, it is UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE for any country to increase their oil consumption beyond current levels without TAKING IT FROM SOMEONE ELSE.  


Take your pick.

Source: BP Statistical Review of World Energy.


An honest projection out to 2030 predicts global oil consumption at LESS THAN HALF of current levels.  In the near future, every nation is going to feel a big pinch in their energy flow.  Instead of voluntarily changing lifestyles to embrace the new reality, a more likely scenario involves more of the same fighting for OIL.


OIL supply goes DOWN.  CONFLICTS over oil go UP.  Guaranteed.


This situation poses a potentially catastrophic dilemma.  Around the world, ~7 billion people not only need OIL to eat, but growing numbers of them are also firm believers in the inherently flawed philosophy of INFINITE GROWTH and the WASTEFUL LIVING prompted by CONSUMERISM.


Our media machine has been pumping out FLASHY BULLSHIT for decades, and the rest of the world has bought into the tragic concept of INFINITE GROWTH under the guise of the GOOD LIFE, aka THE AMERICAN DREAM.


Here in the HOMELAND, we're now starting to suffer for a century of serving as such a BAD EXAMPLE.  What goes around comes around, and this one is guaranteed to bite us all in the ass.


It's frightening to speculate what happens once demand drastically eclipses supply, but many people have looked to the future and offer LOGICAL predictions.  On this site, OILFREEFUN, I will now start offering my own predictions along with suggestions of what we can do as individuals to minimize this catastrophic trend while preparing personally for the worst.


Crazy?  Perhaps... but nowhere near as crazy as INFINITE GROWTH ECONOMICS or the ABSURDLY WASTEFUL LIVES which most of out countrymen have "chosen".


If you're still reading, I'm sure many of you are skeptical and pondering how alternatives to oil factor into the big picture.  My own personal reasoning is this...


If some other source could meet the need that oil currently fills for us, do you think we'd be fighting perpetually to maintain our supply of foreign oil?  If there wasn't oil in the Middle East, none of us would care remotely what happened there.  This war began a long time ago and will continue for a long time into the future.  It is being fought entirely because of OIL.

The fact that we've fought so long and so hard for oil provides ME with all the proof I need to BELIEVE that nothing can realistically replace it.  If there was any other viable option to "Keep America Rolling", I'm confident that our economic and political leaders would have embraced it long ago.  After all, Our Presidents have been soap boxing energy independence for 40 YEARS.


Sadly, THERE IS NO OTHER VIABLE ENERGY SOURCE which is why we get a bunch of BULLSHIT regarding national energy policy.

Coal and Natural Gas can be turned into liquid fuels but the process is very costly and wasteful.    Also, reserves of these fossil fuels are nowhere near sufficient to do what they do for us now while replacing the energy deficit from decreasing oil availability.

Ethanol offers a false hope because it takes huge expanses of farmland and massive amounts of water and fossil fuel energy to produce.  If anything, ethanol production exacerbates our current predicament, contributes to climate change, artificially inflates global food prices, and takes food from the mouths of people who are already starving.  You don't have to take my word for it:

Time Magazine, April 7th. 2008 

Solar, Wind, Hydroelectric, Tidal, and Geothermal power are great, but there is absolutely NO POSSIBILITY of these sources coming anywhere close to meeting our current energy needs.  Right now, the US gets 6% of it's energy from renewable and "clean" energy sources.

Source: NPR, 2009

Unless we somehow come up with TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF NEW ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE almost OVERNIGHT, there is no way clean energy is going to fill the growing void left by decreasing oil supplies.  No other energy source comes close to providing what oil does and no energy source ever will.

If you did your homework, you know that...

THE ONLY TRUE SUBSTITUTE FOR OIL IS A DRASTICALLY DIFFERENT LIFESTYLE.


SUSTAINABILITY gets plenty of lip service, but most people don't even understand what "sustainable" means.  Almost all "green" initiatives are short-sighted loads of crap.

If you haven't personally felt the pinch yet, remember that in a global perspective we in the United States are still relatively rich.  That said, even here in Teton County, Wyoming - the wealthiest county in the United States - many people struggle to find jobs, pay bills, and get by.  Meanwhile, the big buckaroos who've settled here for cushy tax purposes have got more money than they could ever spend.


The NEW DEPRESSION is going to get MUCH WORSE and the gap between rich and poor will continue to grow to UNPRECEDENTED LEVELS.

INCREASING INEQUALITY coupled with RESOURCE SCARCITY and UNAVOIDABLE INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT at a time when the PARADIGM OF INFINITE GROWTH HAS NO OTHER OPTION BUT TO SHIFT is the recipe for MASSIVE GLOBAL CHANGE.


While this change certainly won't be pretty, it doesn't have to be deadly.  Keep reading and I'll do my best to help keep you at least a few steps ahead of the HERD.


PEACE.