The Long Emergency

[AG78]

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7203633?pageid=rs.NewsArchive&pageregion=mainRegion&rnd=1111684924020&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1059

A few weeks ago, the price of oil ratcheted above fifty-five dollars a barrel, which is about twenty dollars a barrel more than a year ago. The next day, the oil story was buried on page six of the New York Times business section. Apparently, the price of oil is not considered significant news, even when it goes up five bucks a barrel in the span of ten days. That same day, the stock market shot up more than a hundred points because, CNN said, government data showed no signs of inflation. Note to clueless nation: Call planet Earth.

[jedr]

1. it all goes un-noticed, except for Terri Schriavo.....

damn they're good at this....wonder what the next "hot button" will be as we plan to invade Iran?

[Steel City Slim]

4. Misdirection

The use of "hot button" issues goes back at least as far as Ronnie Ray-gun when he used flag burning to distract attention from Iran-Contra and Ollie North's criminal activities.

[jedr]

6. welcome to d/u

[mhr]

8. Peak Oil Goes All Way The Back To M. King Hubbert And The 1950s

Hardly seems like a hot button issue at all.

One has to look past the current sensationalism to see that this is a real issue that has been ignored for decades.

[mhr]

2. More On The Long Emergency

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7203633?pageid=rs.NewsArchive&pageregion=mainRegion&rnd=1111689845570&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.104

Snip ....

The way that commerce is currently organized in America will not survive far into the Long Emergency. Wal-Mart's "warehouse on wheels" won't be such a bargain in a non-cheap-oil economy. The national chain stores' 12,000-mile manufacturing supply lines could easily be interrupted by military contests over oil and by internal conflict in the nations that have been supplying us with ultra-cheap manufactured goods, because they, too, will be struggling with similar issues of energy famine and all the disorders that go with it.

As these things occur, America will have to make other arrangements for the manufacture, distribution and sale of ordinary goods. They will probably be made on a "cottage industry" basis rather than the factory system we once had, since the scale of available energy will be much lower -- and we are not going to replay the twentieth century. Tens of thousands of the common products we enjoy today, from paints to pharmaceuticals, are made out of oil. They will become increasingly scarce or unavailable. The selling of things will have to be reorganized at the local scale. It will have to be based on moving merchandise shorter distances. It is almost certain to result in higher costs for the things we buy and far fewer choices.

The automobile will be a diminished presence in our lives, to say the least. With gasoline in short supply, not to mention tax revenue, our roads will surely suffer. The interstate highway system is more delicate than the public realizes. If the "level of service" (as traffic engineers call it) is not maintained to the highest degree, problems multiply and escalate quickly. The system does not tolerate partial failure. The interstates are either in excellent condition, or they quickly fall apart.

America today has a railroad system that the Bulgarians would be ashamed of. Neither of the two major presidential candidates in 2004 mentioned railroads, but if we don't refurbish our rail system, then there may be no long-range travel or transport of goods at all a few decades from now. The commercial aviation industry, already on its knees financially, is likely to vanish. The sheer cost of maintaining gigantic airports may not justify the operation of a much-reduced air-travel fleet. Railroads are far more energy efficient than cars, trucks or airplanes, and they can be run on anything from wood to electricity. The rail-bed infrastructure is also far more economical to maintain than our highway network.

Snip ....

[mhr]

3. Energy Flows In The US Economy - Oil And Otherwise - For Perspective

[chlamor]

5. Make copies

pass them out to friends and family.

Have a few tapes of Kunstler who is a linguistic genius and funny in a dark way. Play the tapes to students who are then caught between stupefaction and laughter.

This article is freakin' great.

[mattclearing]

7. I read it. Serves as a great primer.

I'm still not wholly convinced, but I'm glad someone is discussing it.

Nice to see that Rolling Stone is continuing to rebuild its journalism cred in the wake of the election.

[wabranty]

9. Thought provoking but . . .

the author is too dismissive of alternative fuels and the hydrogen economy. The state of nuclear fusion research is way beyond the 1970's stage and is a just a breakthrough or two away from being viable. The hydrogen economy is real and there are other methods of making hydrogen than using natural gas. The real reason alternative energy research hasn't made any great strides since the 1970's is because it hasn't been adequately-funded. With a greater sense of urgency (and this article is great for that), we can increase funding to alternative energy and hopefully find a path that takes us from the wasteful energy practices today to an environmentally-friendly living standard that avoids the bleak future potrayed in this article.

http://www.apolloalliance.org/