Wednesday, March 9, 2005

The Prophecy Of Oil

Slow news days aren't slow, really, but they do let us catch up on stuff that happens slow enough we don't have to jump out of the way. William Rivers Pitt in Truthout:
Oil infuses virtually every aspect of our civilization. It is the basis of the global economy. It is the inescapable ingredient that creates, supports and sustains the Western world as we know it.

Yet even as oil gives generously with one hand, it takes grievously with the other. Even if the petroleum industry is correct and there remain trillions of barrels to be plumbed, that oil is located for the most part in some of the most dangerous and unstable places on the planet. That danger and instability has been created, in no small part, by the fact that oil can be found there.

Oil revenues fund global terrorism. Oil resources motivate wars, and more wars, and more wars. This is the sharp other edge of the sword; if the petroleum industry is correct and oil can be found and drilled for generations to come, that means generations to come will be required to share the death and destruction we endure today in the grubbing for oil. There is no escaping this.

Only a maniac would hope for the immediate collapse of the petroleum paradigm and the social, economic and military chaos that would ensue. If all the oil in the world disappeared tomorrow morning, millions of people would be dead by sundown, and billions more would follow soon after into the grave. None but the purest of psychopath would look forward to a catastrophe of this magnitude.

Something, however, must be done. If the 'Peak Oil' theory is an accurate prediction of the imminent future, something must be done. If 'Peak Oil' is only a myth, something must still be done. One way or the other, this paradigm is going to destroy itself, and it will take a monstrous number of people with it.

Like it or not, we're stuck with the petroleum-based world we created in a time when it seemed simple and good. We're stuck until the better brains amongst us can come up with something, unhindered and unfettered by politicians and oil companies.

Me? I'm going to go out and bolt-on that 200MPG carburetor....

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