$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pstarr', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('davep', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'M')os, the issue a lot of us have with the Time article (and the several dozen other articles about the IEA whistle blower story) is that it seems contrived. Time is a corporate behemoth. Nothing escapes its walls without careful planning and input from several sources. I work for one of the largest multi-national corporations the world has ever seen, I know how we roll. The fact that this Time article (1) was released less than 24 hours after the whistleblower story first surfaced, and (2) whose tone is also a 180 degree about-face from past negative stories on peak oil, is quite notable. I find it unbelievable that Time would be able to roll out a story that so differs from their past stances on Peak Oil in just a few hours.
The problem we have with this is not the mainstream's recognition of peak oil. It's that corporate interests are going to co-opt peak oil now. When an organic movement is co-opted by corporations, the best interests of the citizenry are never served. Corporations use the movement to further their own agenda and generate more profits for themselves under the guise of being "good". It looks like this is going to be used to push treaties like the Copenhagen climate treaty which will severely limit national sovereignty and personal Liberty while increasing corporate and governmental control over our lives.
What we need is to move towards more localized, sustainable economies and communities. What will happen if peak oil is corporatized is that the decisions about human activity, energy usage and planning will be made by a handful of CEOs on a world-wide scale. Think of Mao in China during the cultural revolution as an analogy. I hate to sound like such a hippie but we need an organic movement to change our lives and deal with Peak Oil, not multinational corporations and SWAT teams using Peak Oil as another excuse to exercise more control over our lives.
PeakOil is You
Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure-whistleblower
Re: Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure-whistleblower
by Homesteader » Wed 11 Nov 2009, 14:46:08
<applauds>
Count me in also
Me too.
"The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences…"
Sir Winston Churchill
Beliefs are what people fall back on when the facts make them uncomfortable.
Sir Winston Churchill
Beliefs are what people fall back on when the facts make them uncomfortable.
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Re: Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure-whistleblower
by kpeavey » Wed 11 Nov 2009, 14:55:49
The articles in the Guadrian and in Time, combined with the IEA WEO report represent a showing of cards by TPTB. Its a public and formal acknowledgment of Peak Oil, and gives us a better picture of what is in store as far as government actions. Is is clear that Climate Change will be the publicly presented crisis by which petroleum use is turned into Taboo in order to belay the worst parts of oil decline.
So corporate interests will co-opt Peak Oil and its effects. Nothing unexpected here. If there is money to be made, of course corporations will have a hand in it.
It is important to remember that these corporate giants and government controls are still energy intensive in their operations, and as such will eventually succumb to decline.
In the end, sustainable, local economies and communities will be the dominant paradigm.
We are getting deeper into The Transition. The most certain thing we have always known is that The Transition will be unpredicatble. We know what has happened before the peak. We know where we'll eventually be. Its the passage out of BAU and into sustainable communities that we can't know. We know it will be ordered at the start-governments and corporations making the calls. We know that The Transition will move into an unordered phase-corporations shutting down, governments losing control, societies falling apart.
The most significant aspect of these articles and the WEO report is that they serve as a mile marker. Peak Oil is no longer a theory or a future event. It is a current event, and one that will become all the more mainstream as more people come to understand what it means.
There will be economic problems, loss of liberties, corporate mergers and acquisitions. There will be new laws and changes in procedure. Standards of living will undoubtedly decline for most people. None of this should be a surprise to anyone around here. These will be the days of price spikes and oil shocks, inflation and unemployment. Bread lines and tent cities. We've been talking about it for years. Now it is time to live it.
We now face the question: Do we work real hard to keep things as peaceful and gentle as possible on this downhill slide, or do we tear off the band aid while we still have resources with which to start over.
So corporate interests will co-opt Peak Oil and its effects. Nothing unexpected here. If there is money to be made, of course corporations will have a hand in it.
It is important to remember that these corporate giants and government controls are still energy intensive in their operations, and as such will eventually succumb to decline.
In the end, sustainable, local economies and communities will be the dominant paradigm.
We are getting deeper into The Transition. The most certain thing we have always known is that The Transition will be unpredicatble. We know what has happened before the peak. We know where we'll eventually be. Its the passage out of BAU and into sustainable communities that we can't know. We know it will be ordered at the start-governments and corporations making the calls. We know that The Transition will move into an unordered phase-corporations shutting down, governments losing control, societies falling apart.
The most significant aspect of these articles and the WEO report is that they serve as a mile marker. Peak Oil is no longer a theory or a future event. It is a current event, and one that will become all the more mainstream as more people come to understand what it means.
There will be economic problems, loss of liberties, corporate mergers and acquisitions. There will be new laws and changes in procedure. Standards of living will undoubtedly decline for most people. None of this should be a surprise to anyone around here. These will be the days of price spikes and oil shocks, inflation and unemployment. Bread lines and tent cities. We've been talking about it for years. Now it is time to live it.
We now face the question: Do we work real hard to keep things as peaceful and gentle as possible on this downhill slide, or do we tear off the band aid while we still have resources with which to start over.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face--for ever."
-George Orwell, 1984
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twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, and what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-George Yeats
-George Orwell, 1984
_____
twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, and what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-George Yeats
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kpeavey - Expert
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Re: Key oil figures were distorted by US pressure-whistleblower
by Jotapay » Wed 11 Nov 2009, 14:56:46
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', 'I')f you know of a way to reduce CO2 output that doesn't raise your libertarian hackles, let me know. Saying "What we need is to move towards more localized, sustainable economies and communities." by itself isn't going to accomplish much if nobody signs on. It's just a platitude. Otherwise I suggest you get your priorities in order regarding the gravity of climate change. Because the way we're headed, your personal liberty's not gonna last very long when the zombies come banging down the door to make you into long-pork stew.
I think your points here are valid, but an organic sea change in regards to Peak Oil is possible, even if it's unlikely. It would take sufficient crisis at great pain to make this happen, as has happened in the past with the American civil rights movement and the liberation of India under Ghandi's direction.
But I don't see the corporatization of peak oil as a good solution to the problem, really. Global corporations are diametrically opposed to localized, sustainable economies, which is what we need. Corporations would restrict human activity through massive regulation on our everyday lives to reduce energy through central planning. It would be better if the economy were reorganized into more localized/regional structures with emphasis on regional self-sufficiency. Citizens would be more productive with more work and have a better standard of living under this system. Corporations will never allow us to take this path because they are committed to global operations and planning.
I would rather be a productive blacksmith, electrician or small business owner in my local community than a specialist in a cubicle where every thing I do during the day is dictated by the corporate headquarters on the other side of the world. I already do the latter and it's not a pretty long term existence.
Again, I think your points are valid. It's not going to be pretty no matter how this hashes itself out.
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