We see signs around us. Today, we went to Kroger for gas. With the 3-cent-per gallon discount (with our Kroger card), our price was $3.22. Went next door to the Chinese Buffet for lunch. Before we finished lunch the price at the Kroger pumps across the driveway had moved up by 11 cents per gallon. When fossil fuel prices begin to rise, the prices of EVERYTHING rises, because there is very little in the world that does not use petroleum products in some form to make it, package it and transport it.
Peak Oil is a phenomenon that has occurred or is occurring right now on a global scale. The phrase means essentially, that the maximum amount of oil that it is possible to get out of the ground per day has been reached or passed. You can find several links which say something about "peak oil debunked". Note the source of those writings, and phrases like "...blows Al Gore's climate change scam out the window showing the fallacy of the concept of 'global warming'".
This doesn't mean, of course, that tomorrow the world will come to a screeching halt for lack of fossil fuels. Nor will the world come to a screeching halt in ten years because of this. It does mean that gradually, gas and everything else associated with fossil fuels will become more and more scarce, more and more expensive. There are wars going on as you read this, prompted in part by a desire to control countries and regions which have the most oil and coal and natural gas. The wars will increase. The poor will continue getting much poorer much quicker. There will be massive loss of human lives due to 'simple' poverty (as though the approximately 20,000 deaths every day that come because of this is not 'massive'. It is not by comparison to what is coming. Global Food Prices Hit Record Highs
Aside from oil or 'black gold', there is also 'blue gold'...water. A little over ten years ago in Bolivia this class warfare did devolve into shooting and dying, when the Bechtel Corporation tried to privatize the water supply and charge people to get what was already theirs in the first place. It was a case of the haves trying to make sure the have nots, have less. It always is.
As you read, there is much wrangling going on in the northern states and parts of Canada about the fresh water of the Great Lakes...and who gets it. Do you know who Dick Armey is? Consider this quote:
"As former Congressional leader Dick Armey of Texas warned in 2000, thirsty and growing states will surely come after Great Lakes water, 'We're not going to be buying it. We're going to be stealing it.'" Source. This from a 'Congressional leader'. Heh.
There is continual pushing from the puppet governor of Wisconsin, his controllers, and some other mostly Republican governments (Ohio Senate Passes Anti-Union Bill). It remains to be seen how that will end but, Gov. Walker Orders Arrest of Missing Wisconsin Democrats and, "In related news, 11 rounds of 22-caliber live ammo were found outside the Wisconsin Capitol building today."
One other major problem is media's tendency to be misleading. These links I have here are from Slate.com. In the same issue, along with the Wisconsin story and the Ohio story, as though it were of equal import and validity to the public is Justin Beiber's Hair Sells for $40,668 on eBay. To many people, this story and dozens like it ARE of more importance and interest than the others. This is one of the things that happens when journalism is as based upon capitalism and politics as any other endeavor.
If you are over about 30 years old, the world you live in for the next 30 years will probably be hugely different from the one you used to know. There will be good things and bad. How good or bad for you will depend partly on your ability and willingness to learn and adapt.
Another of America's 'mini-shuttles' will launch tomorrow. Did you know about those? The details of the cargo to be carried into space are classified, but I suspect it has something to do with the latest class of weapons being prepared and deployed...namely, DEWs or Directed Energy Weapons. Many of these have been in development for at least 15 years, some longer. There are several kinds; lasers, masers, particle beams, microwave, ElectroMangnetic Pulse (EMP), etc. These are no longer science fiction or theoretical but are deployed and used on the ground (and in space) right now. One of the things an EMP weapon can do might be, in some ways, more devastating that a nuclear weapon, at least for a very high-tech society. This weaponry is such that it can instantly and permanently fry any and all devices which have a computer chip in them. How many devices can you thing of that you have, or that your town has, which would cease to function if such a weapon were used? Do you doubt that China and Russia and maybe a few other nations will also have such capacity?
The phasers are here and very real, and about a century ahead of schedule...but you can't have one - yet. Did you think the writers of the Terminator movies simply made up Skynet? No, it too is very real, the writers just exaggerated, or... extrapolated until about 20 years from now.
Of course not all is gloom and doom conspiracy theories... oh wait, those pics aren't theories. Anyway, it is obvious that technology can be hugely beneficial. Consider...a 2-inch cube that can do even more than a cell phone tower can do, and do if for much less energy. Check it out. The question is, as always, what kind of mindset will dominate the use of such technologies. Will those people who think such things should be used for the betterment of human life and the world we live in...or will only the greedy and those who lust for power use them to consolidate their power to the point where they are quite literally impregnable, and the rest of humanity - whatever remnants may be left - is reverted to serfs and slaves? By the way, slavery is absolutely essential for the existence of a civilized society...see next blog.
TRB
Thanks, Hugh.
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