Energy is the key always the key. Oil is what created the Western Industrial economy. It could not have been created using prior energy sources.

You are right my noting peak. There is simply no replacement for oil given the kind of industrialized consumption that is essential for the corporate capitalistic economy which is the very essence of the American empire.

The energy expended to obtain the most energy yielding source (oil) continues to go up - the ratio between what it takes to extract to produce a unit of energy has been becoming smaller and smaller. This is net energy. When energy expended equals or is greater than energy extracted you have no economy as we know it.

That oil prices go up and down have absolutely NOTHING to do with its availability. If we find more sophisticated ways to extract we simply deplete faster, creating peak quicker. This is true of every fossil source of energy. And none of them has the flexibility and multiple uses such as oil. And every time we deny, every time the US politicians fail to adhere to this primary law, they are in fact chosing a course of total economic destruction; one they hope will find some “solution” which is just not feasible.

And why an oil crisis? Peak oil. Why peak oil? Oil is finite. And because everyone is stuck on materialistic growth as the way to do things. And it is crass materialism that led to all the other mistakes that contributed to it as well.

http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-112467

Eventually, things will get better. But only after the great crash, unless _everyone_ changes soon. The world that is coming will be _totally different from top to bottom_ than what we have now.

But do they understand what real change will mean? It means complete and total change of everything, and not just with America. For example, most economies are still dependent on growth. Earth is NOT a TARDIS: it is as big as it looks. What happens when you run out of space and resources? CRASH!!! Continued “growth” as the basis for economies, is going to become a thing of the past at some point here. We can either go and make it happen now, or we can keep dallying (”we” here means all of humanity, not just America or some other country), and have a real hard and painful crash.

NO war is a good war. ALL wars are EVIL!!!

What I’m curious about is why exactly is the fall of the American country from its superpower status required in order to change _those_ other, non-American economies to a growth-independent form? Although I would not be surprised such a thing would be needed for _its own_ economy to be changed to that way.

“As the financial crisis deepens, America’s ability to wage war will steadily erode as capital and resources dry up. Its only a matter of time before the war machine sputters to a halt and the troops return home. When the killing stops, a truly new world order will begin.”

Even if there was no financial crisis it would still happen. Global oil supplies — the blood that fuels such a military — are depleting fast. We may have hit or passed peak oil already, and so oil production will soon, if it hasn’t already, go to terminal, irreversible decline around the world, essentially mirroring its ascent during the past century — i.e. 25 years from now, we’ll have oil production levels like those of 25 years _ago_, yet a system that requires a lot _more_ than that… now if that isn’t gonna hurt and hurt BAD, I don’t know what is. Soon America and other petroleum-dependent militaries will find their tanks unable to run, their bombers unable to fly, and their ships unable to power through the high seas. Economies will crash in a way that makes this crisis look like a blip, and it won’t just be America to blame, but everyone who dared to become dependent on oil. It will end in nothing short of a total disintegration of the entire global economic, political, and social infrastructure if nobody goes and decides to get off before then. Even if they do it could still be very, very hard.

But it may be that a catastrophe on this great a scale, of this immense magnitude, like nothing ever seen before in all of recorded history, is what will be needed to take the quarreling countries, break down their borders, and unify the world into one single country. So maybe it has to happen, if we are indeed to have peace.

The problem is that the other, non-American countries are repeating the same mistakes that America has done, and like it, don’t see them as mistakes. Materialism is one example of such a mistake. Growth-dependent economics are another. You think Russia, or China, perhaps, could survive if their economies stopped growing, e.g. by hitting ecological and geophysical limits which do really exist?

Eventually we will have things better, but things might have to get very bad before that happens. Why? Because we (humanity) chose to do it that way.

NO war is a good war. ALL wars are EVIL!!!

With all due respect to the article’s content, I’m still wetting myself over the title. Very clever! I’m halfway through the 76 page report ‘Rebuilding America’s Defenses’ by The Project for the New American Century. I hope to finish it before America goes under…………….

Just one comment about the article and related blogs. There seems to be a ‘1999-type Clintonesque’ optimism around the place, and an expectation of better times ahead simply if America goes under. Comments like:

‘Bring on the New World Order. May it be one of cooperation and equality rather than confrontation and elitism.’

and:

‘When the killing stops, a truly new world order will begin.’

I applaud everyone’s optimism, but let’s have some realism here. Just WHO exactly is establishing this New World Order (I hope it’s not the Europeans - they’re the most bloodthirsty people of the last 1000 years; or the Russians - they have too many nukes for my liking; or the Asians - they’re not too shabby with this Imperialism stuff themselves!) and HOW is it being done. I don’t see any changes being made. All I see is a country (America) tottering a bit, with tens of other countries waiting to have their time at the top of the heap. Yes, America (the country) has done some awful shit. Yes, they (the people) will pay for their leaders’ greed and lust for power. Yes, America is big and bad. But the only difference is that America is bigger and badder than the rest. And let’s not assume that the ‘countries-in-waiting’ would not have done the same. They’re just envious that they weren’t evil enough to setup such a $cheme 200 years ago themselves. Given the opportunity, they have done and will do similar.

So, if America does totter, let’s be cautious and realistic about the ‘power vacuum’ in the world financial system. The quotes from Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin picture these guys/girls as altruistic saviours of the planet’s financial system. When a gambler with a Yankee accent is replaced with a gambler who speaks German, Mandarin or Russian, the result is approximately the same. Men with greed for money and power transcends imaginary lines on a map. Whoever steers the ship (unipolar or multipolar) is heading for ruin……….

John Andrews, you mention that war has ‘nothing to do with the American people’. I think you mean that the architects/planners of war have nothing to do with the American people. Don’t absolve the public of their responsibility. Just a small point, but where do the troops, factory workers for Lockheed Martin and nationalistic flag-wavers come from?

If we, the public, keep supplying lemmings for slaughter, then they, the government will keep using us. That’s my supply and demand lesson for the day………

Why don’t I just say:

A cursory look at history will set you straight, there have been people ranting nearly the same prophecies of doom for about eighty years now. And never once has there been anything like what they describe happen.

Oh well, life goes on. There always have been and always will be false prophets of doom.

But by 1990, Huanuco began noting strange climatic patterns in this village of 500 residents at 11,000 feet in the Andean Cordillera Blanca. They included battering hailstorms, months without rain and warmer winters. By 2005, the quirky weather became more consistent and included a fungus that blanketed his potato crops. Huanuco now worries about earning enough to put food on the table and buy school books for his three children.

“Before, we planted all year long, any month we wanted to,” Huanuco said while eyeing a tiny potato plot. “Now we only get water a few times a year and cannot plant as much, and the pests and diseases keep coming.”

Most climatologists blame global warming for Huanuco’s woes. San Francisco Chronicle

I know that was from the San Francisco Chronicle and probably not true just saying this kind of stuff to scare people. After reading this I went right to the Wall Street Journal because that is where the truth lies.

The president looked tired he had a tie on worn lose and no coat. My fellow Americans and people of the Earth. People of the Earth that’s a new one. In the last three years, time has away of moving into the future, since I have become President things have changed and not for the good. The latest data from our scientists from just the Arctic region means to put it in just a few words is we are all in big trouble. The temperatures have spiked and the seas are on the rise. Reports from around the World are not encouraging. China is now getting temperature spikes and drought, flooding is starting to take it’s toll. Food and water are in short supply not only in China but India and in the United States we are seeing spot shortages. From what I understand a slice of pizza in New York City is now 30 dollars. So far because of the economic downturn we have continued to use fossil fuels as this was the cheapest way to produce energy. Under my direction and most of the World leaders that is now going to change. I am asking all the people of the World to conserve what you can. In the united States that will mean please only eat meat 6 times a week. Maybe pizza two times a week. Still buy new but used is good too. Las Vegas is still open and I hear the tickets are very cheap. We all have to do are part as we repower America and the World. We can get through this together and America is still the greatest Nation on Earth and at this time of crisis listen to your leaders and watch your parking meters.

Anybody else tired of stupidity, nonsense, insanity, greed, foolishness, lies?

You hit it, Synec3…it’s always about wealth grabbing. It’s hard to see in the “developed world” –where the house slaves still have some comforts to go along with their fears– but the transference of labor into gold for the masters is still the same alchemical principle used in Joe Hill’s day.

Few will sympathize. It deserved this fate. Like Lennie in the story Of Mice And Men, America had the muscles to be a world bully but not the brain or the wisdom to be a world leader.

Bring on the New World Order. May it be one of cooperation and equality rather than confrontation and elitism.

My blog says more.

Interesting the way you put that I need to think on that one probably day’s.