>I don't think that "peak oil" is the right way of thinking about >what's going on. But pen-l has discussed that question a lot, so I'll >refrain from saying anything more unless Tsar Mikhael wants it.
I understand that a conversation occurred before I subscribed. We should have it again. Peak oil changes everything. Jay =========== Why do we need a new social model? [http://www.warsocialism.com/MoreCurves.html ] * Short answer: The energy costs of everything we mine rises over time. When a country must spend more-than-one unit of energy to produce enough goods and services to buy one unit of energy, it will be impossible for that country to cover its overhead -- and that country will collapse. In order to avoid the worst, a new method of distributing goods and services must be found prior to collapse. * Longer answer: Our present "business-as-usual" model, which requires endless economic growth, is no longer viable. Here's why: 1) Business-as-usual depends upon economic growth, jobs and markets to distribute goods and services. 2) Economic growth and increasing job availability require increasing "net energy." http://dieoff.org/page175.htm 3) Net energy correlates with peak oil and is expected to decrease for decades. http://netenergy.theoildrum.com/node/5500 4) Decades of decreasing net energy will cause job opportunities to decrease for decades. 5) Globally, millions of new workers enter the job market each year, but job availability is expected to decline by millions of positions each year. Eventually, the projected high unemployment among young men will cause catastrophic political failures like Hitler's takeover of German democracy. Therefore, business-as-usual is no longer a viable method of distributing goods and services and a new method must be found. Historians will say that peak oil marked the end of the second free trade episode. Theoretically, political leaders could now decide to abandon capitalism and find a new way to allocate goods and services, or they could simply do what they did the last time: fight a world war over resources. [ http://www.warsocialism.com/America.htm ] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
