will the chickens be coming home tomorrow?

This was going to be a post on stupidity based around formula one, but today's market developments mean I really do need to allude to them as well! So I'm going to try to struggle through the anaemia and diabetes and hay fever and attempt to blend the two. Don't judge me harshly ...

This appeared on Facebook the other day -

Please vote, we don't want another sport on Sky

Keep F1 coverage on the BBC for ALL races from 2012

Oh dear! I thought it was 2011, not 1961!  

So I responded - very meekly for me!

I love the idea that there's a whole alternative world out there where oil isn't running out, where there will be constant economic growth and where something as unimportant worries people! The idea that there will be anything resembling car racing in ten or twenty years' time is hilarious!

Amazingly this came back to me -

Clearly you know absolutely nothing about the sport, which for a non-fan is to be expected. If you took all the fuel from the cars for the year, and stuck it into a jumbo jet, you wouldn't reach New York with it. The FIA perform a series of initatives to try and keep the sport sustainable, balancing out the carbon effects. Additionally, road cars are now significantly safer today because of past developments through the sport - the energy recovery used in F1 today could have significant benefits for our road cars in the near future. Indeed, London Transport are in discussions with Williams GP regarding their fly-wheel energy recovery.

I suppose you'd have us all passing our free-time by knitting wooly jumpers, and watching cookery programs? I could only suggest that you report back immediately to the drugs company, that the trial batch they sent you last week has caused your brain to malfunction.

Oh dear - I appear to have rattled a hippy's cage!!

Let's analyse this.

Clearly you know absolutely nothing about the sport, which for a non-fan is to be expected. If you took all the fuel from the cars for the year, and stuck it into a jumbo jet, you wouldn't reach New York with it.

Really? I did ask for a source for this amazing claim, but obviously none was forthcoming.

Well I checked and here goes - A fully loaded 747 carries a maximum of 63,705 U.S. gal which is sufficient for an almost 8,000 mile range. Shorter trips or less cargo and it would carry less fuel.

So let's be unscientific and say that it's 4000 miles (discounting the lower fuel weight resulting in even better fuel efficiency) so say 32,000 US gallons.

The average F1 car has an 80 litre tank.

32,000 US gallons is 121,000 litres. This allows 1500 trips full tank to empty tank.  There are an average of 17 F1 races a year. So this will allow 88 trips each race. So I reckon he could be right - but I'd love to see his original source.

However of course the actual fuel used during a race is a tiny proportion of the fuel used to keep the whole show going ie transport from track to track, support vehicles and, most importantly, the fuel used to get punters to the racetrack! This is why EVERYBODY should be taught basic economics at school!

The FIA perform a series of initatives to try and keep the sport sustainable, balancing out the carbon effects. Additionally, road cars are now significantly safer today because of past developments through the sport - the energy recovery used in F1 today could have significant benefits for our road cars in the near future. Indeed, London Transport are in discussions with Williams GP regarding their fly-wheel energy recovery.

This looks like classic Greenwash to me. Amusing that this most unsustainable of 'sports' has to resort to it, but none of this is 'sustainable'. The end of cheap fuel and the eventual end of all fuel (for cars) will see to that. Our poster totally misses the point, then really descends into one ... and I love the idea that he thinks there will be road cars in the future!! Someone clearly hasn't had their Peak Oil moment yet - what a shock he's going to have!

I suppose you'd have us all passing our free-time by knitting wooly jumpers, and watching cookery programs? I could only suggest that you report back immediately to the drugs company, that the trial batch they sent you last week has caused your brain to malfunction.

Oh dear, here we go! What the fuck is going on in his head here? I think that because I've gently pointed out a few inevitabilities that he thinks there's some agenda here! There obviously isn't, he's probably confusing Peak Oil proponents with those scummy environmentalists. The last sentence is pure stupidity, and although he doesn't know me I suspect he'd want to retract that if he was aware that I need to take around 30 pills a day just to stay alive. Hippy moron!

So from the ridiculous to the sublime let's look at some of the events that have happened in the real world.

A week or so ago those bloated oddballs that run the EU, together with the dipsticks that run Greece, came up with a plan to keep the Greeks in luxury and indolence. 'Kicking the can down the road' is the phrase most commentators have employed to describe this money juggling.

But even I didn't expect it to blow up so quickly. The contagion has moved to Italy and probably Spain. This will pull the Euro apart and push the world back into recession. But what did we expect? Permanent recession now seems to be the only way forward, until we finally all realise that growth has finished, not for good but probably for at least a thousand years. We've obviously reached Peak Oil and those idiots and hippies in power haven't allowed for it. Some of them still talk about growth as if it's an option. It isn't. Once energy and commodity inputs start to level off and then fall all those caught with debt are NEVER going to clear it. That applies to individuals, families, companies and countries.

So we need a radical reappraisal NOW, not this constant nostalgic fiddling with a system that has died. How long will the politicians take to realise it? I don't know but those who understand it the quickest have the best chance of surviving this and taking their countries with it. There's not one British politician who gets it yet, at least the US has Ron Paul!

So, what next? The same advice as always - clear your debts, buy seeds, hand tools, gold, silver and land. Learn real skills and crafts that don't need energy inputs (other than elbow grease) and start putting down deep roots in your community.