Peak Oil and the End of Empire

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By Charles Sullivan
January 3, 2006

Peak oil is most likely a term most readers have not heard before. That is about to change. The concept is slowly making its way onto the mainstream stage. It is intruding into the fringes of the public conscience and soon it may occupy the greater part. When that time comes, as it inevitably will, and probably sooner than you think, the world as we know it will end.

Oil is the lifeblood not only of the U.S. economy—especially its terrible military capability—it is in a very literal sense what drives the global economy. Even small declines in oil extraction (oil is not produced—it is extracted), have created major ripples in the global economy. Remember the gas shortages and rationing that occurred during the Carter Administration during the late 1970s?

All of the oil that exists is the product of complex ecological processes: the decomposition of prehistoric plants and animals over eons of time. There will never be any more oil than there is now. There will only be less; and eventually there will be none. Peak oil refers to the time when the rate of extraction from a specific location (or the whole world) is at a maximum. Beyond the peak of extraction follows a steady and continuous decline. In the U.S. peak oil was reached in the early seventies of the last century. Since that time extraction of all U.S. oil reserves has been steadily declining, while demand has gradually increased. As more of the world becomes industrialized and taps into the world’s oil pipeline, the more rapidly it is depleted. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. There will never be any more.

The world’s largest known oil reserves are in the Middle East--specifically, beneath the desert sands of Saudi Arabia. Other significant reserves exist in Africa, Venezuela, Asia, and Siberia and in lesser amounts scattered across the planet. According to the world’s most highly regarded geologists, physicists and investment bankers, those reserves are much smaller than originally thought. Much of what remains is of poor quality, difficult to extract and very expensive to refine. Globally, world peak oil may have occurred as early as the year 2000. By the year 2020 global population will have nearly doubled; and ever more underdeveloped countries will come online. It should be obvious to any sane person that worldwide demand for oil is severely outpacing supply. For every ten barrels of oil used, only four barrels are being extracted and refined to replace them.

Peak oil is a concept that is well understood by most governments. The end of cheap oil means the collapse not only of the U.S. economy but also the global economy. Alarm over peak oil is almost certainly the hidden reason that the U.S. invaded Iraq. It is the reason we are building fourteen permanent military bases in that country. The U.S. has no intentions of ever leaving Iraq as long as one drop of our precious oil lies beneath their sand. How our oil got beneath their sand must have some cryptogamous connection to the ideology of manifest destiny that has driven this nation to unthinkable crimes against nature and humanity. It is the basis for World War Three, which we may already have initiated with the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Widespread resource wars will be the very predictable result of the rush to extract the world’s last remaining and dwindling oil reserves.

Peak oil is almost certainly the underlying cause for the events of 9/11. The American people are not being told the truth. There is a high probability that Oil men in high places of the U.S. government orchestrated those events in order to get the American People behind the invasion of first Afghanistan, then Iraq; and probably Iran, Syria or North Korea will be next. Dick Cheney appears to be a likely suspect, perhaps with the aid of Poppy Bush and his CIA connections. They intend to get average American’s used to the idea of war that will not end in our lifetimes. The age of cheap oil is nearing an end and the financiers of war and empire are scared stiff. They will do anything to have access to the last dregs of oil that can be sucked out of the earth, no matter which nations sit atop them. The second largest reserves of oil happen to lie beneath Iraq. The U.S. connections to the House of Saud are too well documented to warrant discussion here.

Those who run America’s shadow government, a coalition of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people; including the Carlyle Group and the Bilderbergers, know that we are addicted to oil, especially cheap oil. The entire financial infrastructure of the U.S. Empire and its global holdings, including its satellite terrorist state, Israel, is on the verge of collapse. Those in power are secretly panic stricken. America’s unequalled military firepower is utterly dependent on the life blood of cheap oil to keep the machinery of run amok capitalism running. Given the atrocities that the U.S. is inflicting with impunity around the world, there will be hell to pay when that advantage is lost. Like an addict hooked on Cocaine, those in power will do anything to get one more fix, cost what it will. We are in for a rude awakening.

We must wake up to what kind of people we are dealing with. This government is not only more criminal and corrupt than we imagine—it is more criminal and illicit than we can imagine. Bush and company make the mafia look like boy scouts. Let me try to convey some idea of what I mean. The collection of thugs and criminals now running the country are the greatest and most dangerous organized crime syndicate in the world. And they possess the greatest arsenal of weapons, many of them nuclear, that the world has ever seen. They have an unparalleled propensity for violence. They are not who you think they are; and they are not doing what you think they are doing.

As world citizens we must come to our senses and cast off the intoxicating lies we have been told about America’s domestic and foreign policies. We have built a self delusional culture of mindless consumption of goods and services based upon the exploitation of working class people and raw materials by the ruling elite. It is in their interest, not ours’, that the myths of America as a democracy, as world emancipator of the oppressed were created. They are mere folklore and powerful delusions that are based upon lies and deceit in order to serve the purposes of empire; to keep the poor in servitude to the rich and powerful. They were created so that we can bear to live with ourselves. We are the slaves of modern capitalism in all its horrible incarnations. Like Frankenstein, we helped to create this monster and unleashed it upon the world. We therefore bear the responsibility for bringing it under control and making it accountable to the world.

It has been said that the truth will set us free. If so, and I believe it will, it would behoove us to come to an honest reckoning with the history we have chosen as a nation to create. Any truth is better than make believe.

Charles Sullivan is a furniture maker, photographer, and free lance writer residing in the eastern panhandle of West Virgina. He welcomes your comments at earthdog@highstream.net

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