Drawing parallels with the current financial meltdown, Matthew Simmons expresses his alarm about gasoline stocks being the lowest in several decades and refinery production down following recent hurricanes. He warns that if there were a run on the “energy bank” by everyone topping off their gasoline tanks, the U.S. would be out of fuel in three days, and grocery shelves largely emptied in a week. In an interview plus excerpts from his presentation at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO-USA) conference on September 22, 2008, Matt highlights the risks and vulnerabilities in the finished oil products system, and answers questions from the audience.
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com
The thing is, we have the answer to both of these problems, by moving towards renewable energy we both grow the green economy and move away from carbon based fuels.
No oil? That would separate the survivors from the dependent, wouldn’t it?
I don’t put much money on the urban rich coping very well :-)
Somehow our discourse has to focus more attention upon the ominously looming threats to the family of humanity that are posed by the overpopulation, overproduction and overpopulation activities of the human species now rampantly overspreading Earth in our time.
It seems to me the ecological challenges presented to the human community in these early years of Century XXI are vital matters for discussion; however, our failure to acknowledge in open discussion “the human population factor†as a primary, driving force, one that is precipitating the ecological challenges visible on the far horizon, is making our best, necessary efforts insufficient.
Even worse than the financial meltdown is the “fool’s errand” in Iraq.
“The most extravagant idea that can be born in the head of a political thinker is to believe that it suffices for people to enter, weapons in hand, among a foreign people, and expect to have its laws and constitution embraced. It is in the nature of things that the progress of reason is slow and no one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies. One can encourage freedom, never create it by an invading force.”
~ Maximilien Robespierre, 1792