Three minute video that clearly explains #peakoil

Climate delayers are costing us big bucks - drought bill comes in. #agw

U.S. government paid $17 billion for weather-withered crops last year | Grist: "The federal government forked out a record-breaking $17.3 billion last year to compensate farmers for weather-related crop losses — more than four times the annual average over the last decade.

The losses were mostly caused by droughts, high temperatures, and hot winds — the sizzling harbingers of a climate in rapid flux."

'via Blog this'

Why not stop fighting over energy, and just stop wasting it? Capitalism, that's why.

Net energy

Living things need energy to survive. Humans follow the path of higher net energy. With fossil fuels, we have gained so much net energy that we have created a system in which we spend 10 units of energy to produce 1 unit of food energy, exactly backwards. This cannot go on.

Capitalism and waste

Why not use high net energy sources carefully and make them last longer. This is not possible in a competitive economy. The same short-term profit is gained whether the energy is used wisely or wasted. Since wasting is quicker and easier, it has come to dominate.

World market control

High net energy fuels are in a world market. There is a large concentration in the Middle East/Caspian region. A competitive economy leads to competition between regions. If China and Russia combine to control this region they can cause economic chaos in the United States.

Oil is being rationed by price - proof of supply constraint, aka #peakoil

Our Finite World: "These [western, developed] countries also have much less growth in oil consumption than the rest of the world, indicating that when it comes to oil consumption, citizens and businesses of the US, EU and UK are being outbid by businesses and workers elsewhere.

Workers elsewhere may use less oil per person, but because they have jobs, they are able to purchase new scooters and other goods they want. Their employers also use oil to make and ship goods, keeping their demand high."

Fire, flood, drought, unemployment... no time for that now, must bomb Syria...... Huh?

(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Yosemite

Why? The U.S. has no choice. Like a tractor-trailer with no trailer brakes being pushed by its load, the U.S. government has no choice but to get more militarily involved in Syria. Oh, there will be protests, yes, but as long as the U.S. economy is dominated by car-dependency, control of energy resources is not negotiable. If Russia and China get enough power in the middle east to control world gas and oil prices, they will have the U.S. at their mercy.

What can we do? If you are driving your car to a peace march, pull over and think. Then, go back to your town and fight for free public transit. Or, move to the city if you can, sell your car. Join your local transit riders union, write a blog post (we will post it) exposing sprawl subsidy in your region. If you are a multi-car family, you might get rid of one car and use car-sharing occasionally. There is plenty to do.

Either we end the demand for #autosprawl and its consequent energy waste, or we will go down in blazes of constant war.

Having gotten away with 9/11, false flags becoming a way of life for US

Deleted Daily Mail Online Article: “US Backed Plan for Chemical Weapon Attack in Syria to Be Blamed on Assad” | Global Research: "In January 29, 2013, Britain’s most popular Daily Newspaper, in its online version Dailymail.co.uk published an article titled:

U.S. ‘backed plan to launch chemical weapon attack on Syria and blame it on Assad’s regime’

A few days later they pulled the article."

Dave Olsen in the Tyee, 17 reasons to stop charging people to ride the bus

Why Fare-Free Transit? The Tyee – 17 Reasons 5-July-2007:

Perhaps the skeptic in you is saying: without fares, public transit would run out of money and break down. Or you worry that a free ride would attract riff-raff threatening other passengers' safety and comfort. Or you doubt that sober, number crunching officials would ever take the idea seriously.

By the time you are done reading this series, I will have shared real life examples and expert findings to counter all those concerns.

Fare-free transit brings many benefits, some of which include:

1. a barrier-free transportation option to every member of the community (no more worries about exact change, expiring transfers, or embarrassment about how to pay)
2. eliminating a "toll" from a mode of transportation that we as a society want to be used (transit is often the only way of getting around that charges a toll)
3. reducing the inequity between the subsidies given to private motorized vehicle users and public transport users
4. reducing, and in some cases eliminating, the need for private motorized vehicle parking
5. reducing greenhouse gas emissions, other air pollutants, noise pollution (especially with electric trolleys), and run-off of toxic chemicals into fresh water supplies and ocean environments
6. reducing overall consumption of oil and gasoline
7. eliminating the perceived need to spend billions on roads and highways (now up to $7 billion for the proposed Gateway Project in Vancouver)
8. eliminating the perceived need to spend billions on bigger car-carrying ferries ($2.5 billion for BC Ferries' new super-sized boats and ramps)
9. contributing significantly to the local economy by keeping our money in our communities
10. reducing litter (in Vancouver, the newer transfers/receipts have overtaken fast food packaging for most common garbage found on our streets)
11. saving trees by eliminating the need to print transfers and tickets
12. allowing all bus doors to be used to load passengers, making service faster and more efficient
13. allowing operators (drivers) to focus on driving safely
14. giving operators more time to answer questions
15. providing operators a safer work environment since fare disputes are eliminated
16. eliminating fare evasion and the criminalization of transit-using citizens
17. fostering more public pride in shared, community resources

US/UK looking to escalate war in Syria. Energy wars will continue until we dramatically decrease demand.

BBC News - Syria: Cameron and Obama threaten 'serious response': "The UK and the US have threatened a "serious response" if it emerges Syria used chemical weapons last week.

Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama spoke on the phone for 40 minutes on Saturday, Mr Cameron's office said.

Both were "gravely concerned" by "increasing signs that this was a significant chemical weapons attack carried out by the Syrian regime".

The Syrian regime and opposition have accused each other over the attacks."

Demand is not falling from voluntary effort, it is being destroyed. An important distinction.

The peaking of cheap oil has meant that societies that are heavily dependent on oil are unable to afford to grow as before. High oil prices affect transport, which affects all areas of developed economies. The U.S. and Europe are now at the end of growth and oil demand is falling.

It would be nice if it were falling because we had seen the light and decided to implement free public transit and such to stop the waste. But unfortunately the demand is being destroyed in a most painful way--through unemployment and the stranding of people who can't afford to drive to work or move closer.

A few oil trolls have jumped on this falling demand to declare that peak oil has been obviated by peak demand. Not so. The fall in demand is exactly the pain of peak oil that has been predicted: price rationing. Those who have money, get oil.

Did you know that three buildings collapsed at the WTC on 9/11?

Building 7 fell at free-fall rates for several seconds. That means there was no resistance to the fall. That is only possible through planned demolition. For more of the physics of it: Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth

Oil industry propaganda war is a desperate fight for its own existence

How could something as big and powerful as the oil industry be in trouble, you may wonder. Well here is how.

The oil industry is part of a complex system characterized by hard, fixed assets that cannot be easily moved, modified, or ignored. The oil flows through this system of wells, pipelines, ships, trains, refineries, gas stations, etc. More volume means lower unit costs, higher profit. But what if the volume falls below what is profitable? The answer is money-losing assets which are only usable for oil and have no buyers.

Consequently, even though oil is more expensive to extract every day, they have to keep seeking more and more. This will continue until collapse.

At the same time, the oil industry is besieged on other fronts. People are demanding action on climate. Legislation restricting the burning of fossil-fuel could convert much of the oil currently being counted as reserves (assets) as only resources (non-assets). Actually most governments have already agreed to such a goal. see http://www.carbontracker.org/carbonbubble

In addition, in Europe and North America, more people are using public transit and demanding better service. Many can no longer afford the car culture.

Investors are getting nervous. The amount of new fixed capital to get a little more oil is daunting. See this linked article by Kurt Cobb for more on this:

Resource Insights: The hype cycle: How the oil and gas industry manipulates investors and the public: "Prepare yourself for another hype cycle in the U.S. oil and gas industry. "

Why #freetransit?

Our complex society is made up of systems. Many of these systems, autosprawl, for one example, consist of fixed, hard, assets that cannot quickly be changed: oil fields, refineries, tankers, highways, cul-de-sacs, automobile manufacturing plants, and much more.

In order for a system to return economy-of-scale, there must be a significant use of that system -- critical mass.

This system is based on waste -- the auto is intuitively a wasteful way to move people -- and the system generates waste -- each single home in the cul-de-sac must have its own lawn-mower, ping-pong table, leaf blower, etc.

So how does a wasteful system maintain critical mass? By subsidy, no other way. The costs the the system are ignored, deferred, passed to the taxpayer, the biosphere, or the future.

Cheap oil has peaked, climate change is here, and the bill for such waste is due.

Why do we advocate free public transit? Because it does two things. It reduces demand for oil more quickly than it can be replaced. This will take money and hence political power away from the oil industry. Second, it directly addresses the critical mass of the autosprawl system. When public transit is free, people will move to urban areas, sell their cars, and demand that cities be clean and safe. The auto will become a niche item. No one will want to spend millions on superhighways for a handful of cars.

While alternative fuels are important, we should keep in mind that putting solar panels on sprawl may extend its life and allow autosprawl to retain critical mass longer than what is safe for the biosphere.

Why We Drive: The Past, Present, and Future of Automobiles in America - Andy Singer

Amazon.com: Taking the position that America’s love affair with cars and highways is not a cultural phenomenon but a problem of entrenched economic and political forces, this manifesto chronicles the rise of the U.S. highway system from its orchestrated genesis to our current alarming reliance on automobiles. With a format that incorporates a blend of cartoons, historic photographs and minimal text, this handbook reveals the players, the money and the politics that have led to our petroleum dependence and endless miles of asphalt. It begins by analyzing the environmental impact of driving and ends by offering a blueprint for rebuilding a more sustainable transportation system that could save American cities and the planet.

International conference on free public transport, Tallinn, Estonia, 22-24 August 2013

Fare-Free New Zealand: "The 150 participants registered in the summer school taking place in Tallinn University include regional, state and European level planners of politics, members of non-governmental associations, experts and representatives of interest groups who are fascinated by the closely intertwined issues of transportation, environment, social cohesion, economy, budget and spatial planning.

Foreign journalists from China, Russia, New Zealand, South Korea and various countries of the European Union shall also take part."

JH Kunstler and Richard Heinberg: "We have to stop living like Beverly Hillbillies"

"Thu, 8 August 2013 - Snake Oil: Richard Heinberg on the Great Shale Snooker
JHK yaks with Richard Heinberg about his new book, Snake Oil: How Fracking's False Promises of Plenty Imperils Our Future. Richard is also the author of the great peak oil primer, The Party's Over, and many other books about the converging dilemma's of our time, including Peak Everything and The End of Growth. He's a founder and senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute.
The KunstlerCast music is called “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.

Click here to listen

The Third Carbon Age: How To Fry A Planet

Michael T. Klare: "For all President Obama’s talk of a green technology revolution, we remain deeply entrenched in a world dominated by fossil fuels, with the only true revolution now underway involving the shift from one class of such fuels to another. Without a doubt, this is a formula for global catastrophe. To survive this era, humanity must become much smarter about this new kind of energy and then take the steps necessary to compress the third carbon era and hasten in the Age of Renewables before we burn ourselves off this planet."

Tired of hearing about #peakoil? Get over it, it's not going away.

We will be brief:

• Peak oil is here. It peaked in 2005 as predicted. Data manipulated since then.
• Peak oil hurts. People are suffering right now. Corporate media doesn't connect the dots.
• Peak oil pain now and future will not be fair. Those with no voice suffer most.
• Peak oil is about supply. The idea of peak demand is a hoax.

What to do:

• Stop wasting oil on cars.
• Stop wasting coal on sprawl.
• Stop subsidizing waste.

International Energy Agency manipulated oil supply numbers to please "the Americans."

The Guardian: ""Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources," he added.

A second senior IEA source, who has now left but was also unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organisation was that it was "imperative not to anger the Americans" but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. "We have [already] entered the 'peak oil' zone. I think that the situation is really bad," he added."

Petroleum Truth Report: Shale Plays Not Working For Big Oil

Petroleum Truth Report: Shale Plays Not Working For Big Oil: "I believe that we are seeing the slow liquidation of these organizations but they cannot let the investment public know that this is what is occurring, hence the cornucopian rhetoric about the shale revolution and North American beoming the next Saudi Arabia--pure poppycock, of course.  Will the recent write-downs and announcements affect investors?  Probably not for now."

Free and frequent public transport will end gridlock in Auckland

http://mintoformayor.org.nz/

Oil #peakdemand is latest propaganda, don't fall for it

The London Economist recently published a very sneaky new attack on #degrowth. A thinly disguised cornucopian, gas-as-bridge, piece of propaganda. The unwary reader will come away with a relieved smile and thoughts of plenty. Suddenly this is the talk of the chattering classes. Even some Stanford scientists are on board, to their eternal shame.

http://www.dacarnews.com/in-2012-the-global-car-sales-amounted-to-81-7-million/

It is true that oil demand has been falling in rich countries, mainly due to recession. But this decline is more than made up by demand growth elsewhere. Humans add 70 million people a year to the world.

Don't fall for the lies of cornucopians. They are just trying to squeeze the last profits before collapse. The longer they delay action, the harder the fall.

How much #degrowth is enough? This video does the numbers

IEA: Two-thirds of fossil fuels cannot be burned

The Irish Times - Wed, Jun 12, 2013: "About two-thirds of all proven reserves of oil, gas and coal will have to be left undeveloped if the world is to achieve the goal of limiting global warming at two degrees Celsius, according to the chief economist at the International Energy Agency."

Buying cornucopian snake oil could mean the end of civilization

Grist: "We are starting the energy transition project of the 21st century far too late to altogether avert either devastating climate impacts or serious energy supply problems, but the alternative — continued reliance on fossil fuels — will ensure a future far worse, one in which even the bare survival of civilization may be in question. As we build our needed renewable energy system, we will also need to build a new kind of economy, and we must make our communities far more resilient, so as to withstand environmental and economic shocks that are inevitably on their way.

Meanwhile the fossil fuel industry is doing everything it can to convince us we don’t have to do anything at all — other than simply keep on driving...."