Know Thy Neighbors

Sorry for the delay in updates...a lot's been going on (for everybody, right?). Found an interesting article on one of my favorite blogs The Oil Drum. In "Making the Community Better," a very thoughtful Ianqui brings a community-centered approach to the concepts that gloom-and-doomers peak oilers are rambling on about these days.

In case you don't know, peak oil is the theory that the world is on its last legs of cheap and abundant oil supplies; from here on out, we're probably already on a precipitous slope of decline, even as consumption increases. That means bad news for food supplies, world economies, SUV drivers (including me), everyone and everything really. Since all we do is touched by oil (and natural gas, which is closely related to oil), the ride looks like it'll be bumpy. Check the Energy Bulletin's primer on the topic. While you're at it, read some of Matthew Simmon's speeches on "the coming energy tsunami." In case you're curious, this guy's a GOP insider and energy investment banker that helped Dick and Dubya pen their energy bill. If he's worried, maybe we all should be. An interesting documentary explaining how we got ourselves into this mess entitled "The End of Suburbia" has been getting screentime across North America, and for good reason.

I'll hop out on a limb here and say this subject is the most important issue affecting humanity since we discovered how to use fire. Sadly, most world governments are hushed on the issue, probably for fear of shocking an already volatile global economy. Don't forget though that most wars in human history have been over the control of resources. Hmmm.