The view from the graveyard of empires

…Like all the others before it, the emergence of the U.S. as a world power was based on massive economic growth at the end of the 19th century.

The continued growth and all the military, diplomatic and cultural muscle that flow from it have been based on cheap oil.

But the era of cheap oil is over. It is over in part because of the huge and increasing new demands for energy by people in India, China and other countries that have climbed up the development ladder to the gardens of consumerism.


It is also over because oil is a finite resource. Experts quarrel vigorously about when global oil stocks will go into permanent decline.

Some point to the fact that since the mid-1970s the discovery of new sources of oil has not kept pace with new demands and say we are already on the downward slope.

Others say the tipping point when the oil lake starts to run irretrievably dry comes a bit after 2050.

Whichever estimate is right, the end is nigh.

Vancouver Sun