Guest post by ecoSanity.org Kindred Defender, Dr. Peter D. Carter, M.D.; comment on:
The Pentagon v. Peak Oil;
How wars of the future may be fought just to run the machines that fight them
by Michael T. Klare; TomDispatch; June 17, 2007
* * *
As explained on Exxon’s revealing website, the world passed ‘Peak Easy Oil’ in 2005.
There is as much oil left as has been produced to date – that is ‘difficult oil’- but the oil corporations are switching rapidly to adopt new technologies to get even more oil out of the ground and sea beds.
The market (excluding environmental costs) does not work for us on oil because, as oil gets more expensive, it attracts more investment.
At most, there is 8 years left (IPCC) and 10 years (James Hansen, NASA) to have reversed global greenhouse gas emissions. After that humanity will no have capacity to intervene to control events.
Recent reports and chairs of the IPCC are now saying new research is showing that the situation has been underestimated and that we may already be at the infamous +2 C tipping point.
The increase in the cost of oil is driving the increase in coal-fired generation. 37 nations are building new coal plants.
New coal plants are being built at a rate of 2 per week in China alone!!!
The U.S. and India are in the lead on new coal generation.
It appears there is no way that carbon sequestration will be happening in 10 years – if ever.
As a result of investment in oil and coal, greenhouse gasses are set to increase 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050 (Exxon, World Bank etc).
We are now throwing gasoline on to the climate fire – coal, tar sands, shale oil, deep sea rigs, etc.
So ‘peak oil’ is a misleading idea that is only making matters worse.
The war against terror is a pre-emptive, global military strategy to ensure the difficult (to get to) oil is not disrupted.
The insane reality is that, when we clearly need to be aggressively reversing our dependence on fossil fuels, our institutions are supporting an acceleration of oil and coal ‘business as usual’.
Saskatchewan has tar sands potential comparable to Alberta.
In the U.S., the Colorado shale oil is being brought on line (several times the reserves of Saudi Arabia).
The Pentagon’s reports on climate change make it pretty clear that it foresees a military role in managing the unprecedented, global social disruption that it knows will be the inevitable result of climate change. This is even further insanity to cope with an insanity.
There’s a difference between global climate change and the nuclear arms threat. Climate change impacts are happening now and will only increase.
Why this insanity that is destroying the future?
The military-economic-industrial complex has grown into a heartless and mindless global monster that is out of all control.
A few leaders in the government, military, commercial and economic institutions understand the dilemma, but it will take a worldwide effort to educate them all.
Dr. Peter D. Carter, M.D.
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