If you follow the writings of regular PO commentators then you might have noticed that a couple of them have recently starting predicting that the beginning of the end has begun or is about to start.
If you go to From The Wilderness you'll see that Michael Ruppert has written a highly personal piece in order to appeal for funds.
From the Wilderness
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')I will be as brief and business-like as possible. Time is a precious commodity for all of us. There are two emergency priorities facing me.
FIRST, I must relocate FTW out of Los Angeles to a semi-rural, sustainable area as quickly as possible – by next January at the latest. Once relocated, FTW can take advantage of a number of options to expand our services to our readers at a critical moment. Those options are not available to us in our present location. Many of you know the general area where I want to move us but I cannot disclose it here for a number of reasons. It’s in the Pacific Northwest. We know where we want to go and friends are waiting for us there.
SECOND We need enough cash to duplicate my new video Denial Stops Here and release it as quickly as possible. It must be released by October 18th so time is short. If you have liked what we’ve done for eight years, and if you liked Truth and Lies, then it is imperative that you help us reach an even wider audience so that more people can begin to prepare for the collapse which is just now beginning. This DVD is many times better than The Truth and Lies of 9/11 and capable of reaching and influencing a much wider audience. People are listening.
It is definitely a DVD the Bush Administration and Wall Street do not want released.
I am not asking for loans. For reasons described below, you will see why we are having such a challenging time. I am taking my own advice and refusing to go further in debt because that, in itself, might prove to be a deadly anchor. Given what we have been facing I cannot guarantee that we would be able to repay any loans anyway. But at this point in human history, guarantees of any sort are hard to come by.
PeakOil is You
Are we on the edge of the abyss? (merged)
Are we on the edge of the abyss? (merged)
by stu » Thu 13 Oct 2005, 09:44:19
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'W')e’re running on fumes at FTW and we have been forced to reach out for help again
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')t’s not just me that has to move. We have four staff members with families and we need to secure office space in our selected community before leaving here.
If you read FTW regularly, and if you have read Crossing the Rubicon you understand how critical it is that we get out of Los Angeles now. You know that – before this descending curtain of repression and collapse sinks any lower – we must release our new DVD. There is no more time.
James Howard Kunstler is also speaking in the same kind of language on his blog.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ome band-aids have been applied to our oil and natural gas supply injuries and the bleeding seems to have stopped. But the truth is that our energy supplies are badly compromised and at the worst time of the year -- just as we slide into the home heating season. Here in the northeast, we have barely had to turn on the furnaces yet, but that will change in a week or two.
In the background of this scene, the global oil production peak lurks -- meaning that there does not seem to be any surplus production capacity anywhere in the world, including OPEC's big gun, Saudi Arabia. So all we have here in America is a temporary appearance of normality. When the furnaces go on, the WalMart aisles will be empty. If there is any reduction in car trips, it will be because Americans are making fewer visits to the Big Box stores. There will also be fewer trips out to visit the model homes in the new subdivisions.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')il prices may hang back in the low 60s for a little while -- a combination of less driving, relief over the refinery situation in Houston, and some financial monkeyshines like shorting in the markets (perhaps by government-connected entities seeking to soften up futures prices). But the basic fact is that global oil supply and global demand are now so close that any loss of crude inputs anywhere is going to result in both spot shortages and higher prices. Right now, the supply crunch is being borne by third world countries. The catch there is that some of these third world countries are also oil-producing countries, like Indonesia and Nigeria, and the latter is in the process of falling into social anarchy, which will further impact the global supply. In any case, I don't expect oil prices in America to lay low for long. By Christmas, gasoline pump prices will have joined home heating prices in a vicious pincer around the neck of the non-rich classes.
It looks like Kunstler and Ruppert have decided to lay it all on the line and predict an economic collapse this winter. If the summer of 2006 comes along with no major signs of a collapse then how much credibility do people think they will have?
These are interesting times for doomers.
A cataclysmic cataclysm. Horrendous Horrors. Disastrous disasters. Calamatous Calamities. A messed up mess. Catastrophic Catastrophies.