Wednesday, August 16, 2006

why you ain't gonna get the petrol stupid ...



There is still a small (but shrinking) section of the population, both here in the UK and elsewhere, who assume that ‘they' are going to solve the problem of oil depletion, ‘they' being scientists and politicians.

But look at it logically. There isn't going to be a quick fix, or indeed any fix at all, because it simply isn't out there. Oil was a once in a billion year windfall, cheap and easy to access energy that hit us with a double edged sword of rapid technological development coupled with a veering off the course we were on - sustainability within a solar economy. In a way we shouldn't even be looking for a hi-tech solution to the problem, because hi-tech requires high energy inputs and is totally tied in with the availablility of cheap and easy fuel. Any solution has to be independent of oil, high level technology and complex social organisation, it needs to be local, simple and sustainable.

Now look at it from the point of view of ‘human nature', or so-called ‘human' nature which is anything but. Cheap fuel has helped create the get rich quick consumer society, fuelled by an inane media and companies that have no social conscience or involvement. Cheap fuel is even at the heart of our spiritual decline, with monotheistic monolithic ‘religions' like christianity, judaism and islam having a final fling on the back of rabid media coupled with mindless ‘education', both negative outputs of the cheap fuel mentality, whilst true religions that are whole earth centred, gentle and non-egotistic (Paganism, certain forms of Buddhism and Hinduism) are left behind, though now growing rapidly as the environmental crisis bites even the chavs.

The christian/socialist/thoughtless monolithic capitalist system requires war, destruction, isolation, ignorance to thrive. It has its own agenda of what is important. The fact it is going against the grain and worsening the global crisis merely encourages them. With their hands on rapidly-declining fossil fuel these buggers will prioritise its use. Priorities will be military, emergencyservices, ‘security' services, the political elite and the gormless super-rich. Most garages, the ones we need to use, will have little or no supplies of fuel. The road system will collapse, first at the margins (rural areas, council estates), then increasingly everywhere. There won't only be gated communities but gated transport corridors. Obviously, at local and county levels, the rail network will gradually be restored, providing the resources are accessible, and in the long-term even the elite will suffer from both post Peak Oil effects and increasingly climate disasters.

It's in your own hands how you ride the rollercoaster that's the future. I've written before, and will no doubt write again, about how to do it. At least I know the ‘elite' are too stupid to read blogs, so in the end the decent people will win. But, as I said, it's going to be a bit of a rollercoaster ride! Posted by Picasa

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