DrumBeat: June 9, 2007
Posted by Leanan on June 9, 2007 - 8:31am
Topic: Miscellaneous
Water Crisis Hits Baghdad - Some resort to digging wells as the capital’s taps run dry.
Muhammad Sa'ad wiped the sweat off his forehead after a hot day spent filling pots and plastic containers with water. It took him so long because there was barely a trickle from his kitchen tap.For three weeks in a row, the city has suffered severe power shortages, now up to 23 hours a day, causing a water crisis in many areas.
...Some residents draw water from their taps using electric pumps powered by private generators, an illegal practice but one used by many households. But the continuing fuel shortage means that even this option is frequently ruled out.
John Michael Greer: Is History on Anyone's Side?
But then there’s the last paragraph, and the passage that brought me to a dead stop: “[T]he one bright spot in this future is that peak oil and climate change represent the greatest hope for reallocation of wealth and justice in the world.”That’s an astonishing statement, and the fact that similar statements can be heard all over the peak oil community is one of the more astonishing things about it.
Groups seek answers about oil shale's impact on water
Environmental groups Thursday demanded that companies hoping to develop Colorado's oil shale deposits explain how much water the process could consume and how it would affect water quality and supplies.
Man-made microbe 'to create endless biofuel'
A scientist is poised to create the world's first man-made species, a synthetic microbe that could lead to an endless supply of biofuel.Craig Venter, an American who cracked the human genome in 2000, has applied for a patent at more than 100 national offices to make a bacterium from laboratory-made DNA.
While their shared ambitions of getting permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council brought India and Brazil together, their common aspirations of becoming global powerhouses has contributed to the two countries joining hands to energize their economies. This was the unambiguous statement that come out of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's three-day visit to India.
Qatar and Netherlands strengthen energy ties
he Netherlands, aiming to become a distribution centre for liquefied natural gas, yesterday signed a memorandum with top LNG producer Qatar to strengthen their energy ties, the Dutch economy ministry said.
He gave up a rock'n'roll lifestyle to become an eco-friendly farmer - so just how green is Alex James' home? To find out, he uses a scheme that's open to everyone.
How to get out of your SUV lease
So you've got two years left on the lease for your Lincoln Navigator, but filling the tank is beginning to take its toll.Breaking the lease is not really an option. Fees can run to thousands of dollars. So more and more people are turning to the Web to find people who can take over the leases.
The thing about technology is that, since the dawn of the human species, every technology we have introduced has ultimately, and inadvertently, made things worse. That statement sounds categorical, so let me explain.
Argentina president threatens oil companies amid diesel shortage reports
Argentine President Nestor Kirchner has again threatened oil companies with a 1974 "supply law" that allows the government to fine companies for allegedly failing to supply the market.Kirchner's warning, delivered at a provincial public works ceremony Thursday, comes amid complaints by farm groups that diesel shortages have slowed the planting of this year's wheat crop. Previously, farm groups had complained that diesel shortages were slowing this year's record soy and wheat harvests, which are wrapping up.
Debate on farm bill still rages in different era
When President Franklin Roosevelt signed the first farm policy into law in 1933, he promised it would be a temporary measure.Cotton prices plummeted after the stock market crash. Foreclosures took hundreds of thousands of farms. Droughts and dust storms hurt income and caused an exodus from rural America.
However, more than 70 years later, Roosevelt's plan still spirals - some farmers are dependant on payments to aid their farm income amid a tough farm economy that includes high fertilizer and fuel costs.
Still afloat, no matter the cost - Boaters not deterred by gas prices
Despite rising gas prices, Jim Cook's boats just keep getting bigger. The Hanna City resident is on his eighth and largest boat, called "Fool's Fun."He knows the bigger the boat gets, the more expensive it costs to run, especially with how high gas prices are - more than $3 for regular gasoline throughout the Tri-County Area.
But that still doesn't stop Cook from pumping $1,500 into a double V-8 engine speedboat that gets one mile per gallon.
Addicted to gasoline -- and unwilling to change
A common sight: green light, punch gas, speed to next red light, hammer brakes, repeat.Only two parties benefit from this herd mentality: oil companies and brake pad manufacturers.
Schools' moves help curb fuel costs
During the past few years, schools have reorganized morning and afternoon bus routes for efficiency and scheduled multiple sports teams to play in the same place to combine trips, school officials said. Regularly replacing older buses with newer, more fuel-efficient ones also helps, they said.Stockbridge Valley Superintendent Randy Richards said at the end of June each year, the district tops off all buses and reserve tanks to get the greatest number of gallons at the current rate, before the new year's contract kicks in July 1.
To distinguish the two Charles E. Wilsons, the GM CEO was nicknamed "Engine Charlie" and the GE CEO was named "Electric Charlie."Fast-forward fifty-some-odd years.
Engine Charlie's company is now the very emblem of what's wrong with the country, just starting to pull out of the worst slump in its history, at war with its shareholders over emissions, lagging behind a market becoming increasingly concerned with fuel economy and emissions, losing market share every year, and desperately trying to turn itself around to refocus on the vehicles of the future.
And his legacy is an albatross around our collective necks: A nation of 210 million cars, desperately hooked on oil, with ever crowded roads, stressed out drivers, befouled air, a fuel supply in decline, an unsustainable topology of communities, and few good options for transition to something else.
Not to mention a permanent military industrial complex that eats half of the country's budget every year . . . in large part, to protect the fuel supply for all those cars.
Meanwhile, Electric Charlie's legacy is helping to lead the way to a future of renewable energy.
Be a good citizen by conserving gasoline
As I expected, the recently designated "do not pump gas day" was ineffective as a protest against rising fuel costs. In fact it did just the opposite and prices went up. Such an action will make no impact unless we are willing to carry it into our daily lives.
Gas prices too high? Some say not even close
Seventeen Democratic governors, including Gov. Ted Strickland, recently sent a letter to President Bush calling on him to work with Congress to lower gas prices, which climbed above $3.20 a gallon for regular unleaded recently in Ohio.While political leaders strive to placate constituents forking over more of their income at the pump, there's a group of energy experts arguing that gas is too cheap.
Australia - Carbon is the new Black
An emissions trading scheme will bring a bonanza for many - with this year's election determining who the winners might be.
Kucinich is hot over loss at pump - Says fuel expansion aids Big Oil, cheats consumers
If you filled up your gas tank Friday, you probably got ripped off - and you will continue to be, as long as temperatures stay above 60 degrees.
Gasoline Shortage On Cayman Brac
Traffic was backed up for at least 3/4 of a mile in each direction on Wednesday afternoon, with cars trying to get to the fuel tanks at CB Motors, the Cayman Brac’s busiest fuel station. According to Garson Grant, proprietor of the station, he does not know what triggered the alarm that there was a shortage of gas on the Island. He said that he is not aware of that being the case. “This is a very unusual sight in Cayman Brac,” observed a bystander.
‘Deal will make power costlier’
As the 123 agreement trudged into the last stage of negotiations, the Indo-US nuclear deal faced further resistance from the Left. The CPM has alleged that it would only benefit American businesses and escalate power costs.
Wind big part of Oklahoma's past and future
To many a trip to a windmill museum seems about as exciting as fishing in an empty lake, but when such a museum stands in an area where its 100-year existence is grounded in the wind-powered machines, the same museum tends to become as fascinating as it is relevant.
Port city of Sur is recovering
Oman's eastern port city of Sur and adjoining areas in the Sharqiya region, which bore the brunt of tropical cyclone Gonu's fury when it struck the Sultanate soon after midnight on Wednesday, was recovering fast, key officials of the National Committee for Disaster Control (NCDC) said here yesterday....The Ministry of Oil and Gas said it was doing its best to produce and supply enough quantities of fuel. A shortage at petrol pumps, it added, was caused not by shortfall in output, but by tankers unable to reach filling stations because of transportation difficulties.
Number Cruncher: An Economic Lab On Food Inflation - Why bees are important to your wallet
Interest rates around the world are on the rise, in a bid to keep inflation under control. This week alone, we saw the European Central Bank hike, and the U.S. Federal Reserve rule out rate cuts. The Bank of Canada has said interest rates may rise soon too.It's a sign of things to come, says Bank of Montreal's investment guru Don Coxe. He sees global interest rates rising another 200 basis points in the next two years, mainly because of ... bees.
Qatar: Diesel finds way to black market
Diesel is still being sold on the black market despite the fact that Woqod (Qatar Fuel) has taken the necessary steps to end its shortage by augmenting supplies.
India: City roads to see vans running on battery
Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA), Chief Executive, Tejinder Pal Singh Sidhu has stressed upon the need for effective implementation of energy conservation programme.Speaking at the launch of a battery-operated electra van in the city on Friday, Sidhu said: “Energy conservation programmes can play a vital role in improving the present dismal scenario of shortage of energy in all sectors including industry, transportation, domestic sector and buildings”, said Sidhu.
Tory will use gas taxes to build highways
His platform also calls for increased investment in public transit to create "alternatives" for commuters across the province and identifies traffic gridlock as a preventable source of global warming. "In too many communities, this gridlock is getting worse," the campaign document says."It costs jobs and productivity. It steals time from our lives at home."
"And when cars idle, they are at their worst for creating greenhouse gas emissions," the document says.
Peak Oil Passnotes: What Price Energy Security?
If the quest for energy stability is one that the world’s major economies want to pursue, then things are not going well. If you take a second to stand back and look at the countries that produce large quantities of energy then it seems obvious that we are destined to have some major problems. That is if you like cheap energy. If you like high prices then things look good.The attempt by right wing fundamentalists in the U.S. and the U.K. to secure energy supply through bombs, tanks and the blood of hundreds of thousands is failing. And failing fast. Just like the state-capitalists of the Soviet Union failed in their own attempt in Afghanistan. Iraq may no longer pose a threat to U.S. power-interests, in as much as it will not be invading any of its neighbours any time soon, but the anticipated stream of cheap energy has distinctly failed to materialise.
ENERGY-CUBA: A Light at the End of the Tunnel
The government announcement that electricity supplies in Cuba now exceed demand during the hours of peak consumption was received with a collective sigh of relief by Cubans, who have not forgotten the frequent and lengthy blackouts that occurred, especially during the summertime, two or three years ago.
Pakistan - Power riots: the saga continues
Protests against power outages continued Friday, and demonstrations were held in many areas against eight-hour-long load shedding cycles. It has been a week since long spells of load shedding and the resultant riots first began.
Ghana: Energy crisis to dampen gold’s shine
“The price of gold is expected to be firm and overall production in 2007 is not expected to be hampered by extraneous factors. On the other hand production costs are expected to rise mainly on account of the relatively high cost the mining companies incur in generating power,” Mr Jurgen Eijgendaal, President of the Chamber told the 79th AGM of members in Accra.
The Philippines: Biofuels Act: Will it Lessen Foreign Firms’ Grip on the Local Energy Sector?
At first glance, the Biofuels Act seems like a promising start on the road towards national energy independence, weaning the country away from dependence on imported energy sources.
It Was Forty Years Ago Today ...
Remember the first day you drove a car by yourself, with nobody supervising? You remember where you went that day, what you listened to on the radio and how completely empowered you felt. All of us have spent the rest of our lives trying to get back the incredible feeling we had on that day. It’s called Freedom and all of us have spent the rest of our lives trying to get back to the way we felt on our first solo drive. For it is our weakness, the magic of car ownership.
Fidel: Reflections on the Real World
US agribusiness, also reined-in by sanctions and red-tape, has nevertheless done business with the island and for more than peanuts. In 2006, Cuba bought around $570 million in food from almost 30 states, in spite of burdensome and expensive regulations imposed by President Bush in 2004....On the other hand, as the peak oil-horizon moves closer, Oil Gas Review magazine warns that the struggle for oil would take place in poor countries, where the trend is toward tighter state control over their natural resources.
National oil companies could one day merge: Petronas chief
The growing partnership between newly empowered national oil companies could one day lead to mergers, says the chief executive of Petronas, the Malaysian state oil firm that blazed a trail overseas 15 years ago.
Biofuels, diapers and sails - oh my!
Cargo ships with kite sails. An underground "diaper" that stores irrigation water. Low-cost solar cells made with "dirty" silicon. A biofuel you can drink made from sawdust, railway ties or dead cows.Ideas like these are coming alive as the planet warms and energy prices rise, propelling the market for green fuels, renewable energy, low-emission technology and the like. This is especially true in Germany, the host of the G8 Summit, where save-the-planet awareness is traditionally high and governments and investors are willing to throw money at ideas ranging from the weird to the workable.
GM wants to drive green, but easy on the rules
"Frankly, it's time to move beyond exclusive reliance on historical regulatory approaches that clearly haven't solved these critical problems ... and move forward to embrace solutions that will yield the results that Americans expect and deserve," [General Motors Corp. chairman Richard] Wagoner said."For example, it has become increasingly clear that, of anything we can do over the next decade, biofuels have by far the greatest potential to actually reduce US oil consumption, reduce oil imports, and reduce carbon gas emissions," he added.
Britain tells nationals to leave Nigerian oil delta
Britain on Friday advised all its nationals to leave three states at the heart of Nigeria's southern Niger Delta, Africa's top oil-producing region, where violence against foreigners has become commonplace.
Greens win control of powerful transport committee
THE Green Party yesterday won leadership of the powerful transport committee after a reshuffle of the Scottish Parliament's structure.
There is a quiet revolution afoot, but the Government is not rising to the challenge
People have had enough of cars and planes and are starting to have a good time again without them.
Azerbaijan favors anti-missile idea
Officials in Azerbaijan, a nation with a questionable human rights record and huge oil reserves, on Friday welcomed Moscow's call to use a Russian-leased radar installation in their country as the cornerstone of a proposed U.S. anti-missile system.
Hello TODers,
http://www.africanpath.com/p_blogEntry.cfm?blogEntryID=992
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Zimbabwe: It never rains, but pours for the people of Zimbabwe
However, Zimbabwe’s summer rains no longer bring any joy, but they bring misery to the homeless people of Porta farm and other areas designated for the homeless and destitute people in Zimbabwe. Rains which are normally a symbol of life and hope are ironically now bringing a feeling of gloom and doom to many Zimbabwean farmers who have no farming equipment and fertilizers.
Zimbabwe is now inhibited by some of the poorest people in the world. The country’s former pride as Africa’s bread basket has now gone down the drains. Extreme poverty has turned many Zimbabweans at home into Stone Age scavengers.
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Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
When Zimbabwe used to be Rhodesia, it was the second most prosperous nation in Africa.
Yes, it was a white ruled (racist?) nation at that time, but even the non-whites back then had a far better life style than they do today.
Even though it is definitely not "Politically Correct" to ask, I have to wonder if Zimbabwe were turned back over to white rule how would it affect it's short and long term prosperity for all the people of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe?
Ie., it it really all energy problems or are most of the problems simply really lousy (lack of ) leadership? Or, along another vein, what would it take to get good "majority rule" leadership comparable to what they had in Rhodesia?
Maybe if we can examine these types of things on an academic level without all the usual name calling, political correctness, flaming, and other counter productive comments we might be able to figure out better ways to help people all around the globe to achive better lives.
Anyone care to comment on positive things from the Rhodesian leadership that could be transfered over successfully to the current majority rule to improve living conditions for all the people in Zimbabwe? And what would be the means to transfer the positive things? How could you eliminate the leanings towards bad governments like they currently have and bring about a government that would be able to significantly improve life in Zimbabwe?
There are a LOT more problems than just high priced oil in Zimbabwe that need to be remedied. Please people, lets hear some positive things that can/could be done.
The reason Zimbabwe has collapsed is entirely because of Robert Mugabe. He confiscated land from white farmers, and gave it to political cronies, as part of a "reallocation" of land. Problem is the recipients have no desire or aptitude to farm the land, and food production has plummeted. Once productive farmland has been left to go wild. Without exports of food, they have no foreign currency, and can't import anything (including oil). The economy has effectively collapsed.
Zimbabwe provides an illustratation of what happens when an economy collapses for those who lack imagination, but none of it has anything to do with Peak Oil.
Hello BobCousins,
Thxs for responding.
Your Quote: "Zimbabwe provides an illustration of what happens when an economy collapses for those who lack imagination, but none of it has anything to do with Peak Oil."
I believe Zimbabwe provides a good example of the long term problems every country will need to solve as we all go postPeak:
1. The decline of Zim under Mugabe is a nerve-wracking parallel to a 25-year postPeak decline in fossil fuels, Olduvai Gorge Theory, and WT's Exportland Model. What will other leaders learn from this disaster? Seek the same policies of corruption and power consolidation, or pursue full-on Peakoil Outreach?
2. Mugabe's term in power is very representative of a long-term drought such as what scientists predict for the SW US and Australia. Law of Diminishing Returns, or Receding Horizons, Liebig's Law, MPP, Tainterian Collapse of carrying-capacity, and other concepts leap to my mind.
3. Mugabe's term in power is very symbolically similar to a 25 year Kunstlerian suburbia campaign. The proficient farmers were driven off the land, the new landowners were inept farmers, but at least they have not paved it over with asphalt, strip malls, and McMansions. Yet.
But it is no different in terms of the loss of productive food-growing lands. Zim can go to relocalized permaculture at a much faster speed and lower energy cost than most of the US. That greatly worries me for the future violence levels that we might see here in the USA. Compare agricultural labor force %'s between US and Zim.
4. Yes, Zim's Mugabe showed a great lack of imagination and understanding of Peakoil. Mitigation, shifting to wise social planning, and not practising Peakoil Outreach was his great failure. Has the US done any better since Pres. Carter's Sweater Speech of 1977? Recall that this was even before Mugabe took the reins of power in 1983.
Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Peak oil is one of this eras big hammers but not every problem is a nail.
As the saying is Africa goes:
"The worse thing that happened is when the white men came--
The second worse is when they left---"
We need to quit killing leaders like Lumumba over economic interests,
or we will end up with leaders like Robert M---
It is tough being at the very end of the exploitation line, as you get screwed the most.
A big problem has been those secret numbered bank accounts in some countries which allow corrupt politicians to raid government treasuries and take long vacations and early retirements in Switzerland or the Carribean. Too much foreign aid has been given to large projects that will turn a profit for the donating countries. Multinational corporations have relied on bribery and a supply of black market arms as the way business is done in Africa. All those dictatorships would never have happened if it wasn't profitable for 1st world business interests. When you get down to the nubs business doesn't like all the rules and regulations that democracies generate. Businesses are run like dictatorships and they prefer governments that operate like businesses.
It may be that the Westphalian nation-state template just doesn't fit for Africa. It does not necessarilly fit all that well anywhere, even in Europe (where it is in the process of being extensively modified), but it is especially ill-suited in Africa.
Absolutely spot on, the crisis in Zimbabwe has next to nothing to do with PO - it is almost exclusively down to the decisions taken by a meglomaniac despot. I might also add that pieces on ' power shortage in X country', 'diesel crisis in Y country' in reference to African countries which are immediately held up as evidence for PO induced disaster have, in all probability more to do with localised and short term mismanagement etc of the supply line. As a consequence you seldom see follow up pieces - for example a month ago or so ago all was supposidly doom and disaster in Senegal with fuel running out etc. So why hasnt Senegal collapsed in the interim? Probably because some corrupt official did the monthly import manifest correctly this time. I contend if folk are looking at Africa for their PO doomer porn they are looking too early - as I pointed out in the most recent UN/OECD survey only 4 African countries had growth rates of 1% or less, and one of them was Zimbabwe. The average growth rate was 5% plus, and even the vast majority of the non oil producing nations were showing growth rates which were higher than those seen in the 1990s. PO will no doubt eventually knock the stuffing out of Africa but there is precious little evidence of it happening yet - unless someone wants to show me African growth figures are contracting?
Remember that economic growth rates include population growth, which is still very high in Africa---and this is certainly a Peak Oil issue.
It's another reason USA GDP rates are persistently higher than Europe's. This isn't a result of some triumph of hypercapitalism over social democratic socialism---it's just more people.
It's why you can go to Old Europe and Japan which despite apparently 'anemic' growth rates in the business press, have obviously widely prosperous and widely shared living standards.
andyh,
News from Africa is very thinly covered by the MSM, and not much better by the internet. How do we know what's really happening in Senegal? We can't even get reliable news from Iran, a country with several hundred thousand of its emmigrants in the US.
Andy, you've also taken biased reports for the truth in reguards to Zimbabe. I'm not supporting their president or his economic policies, just saying we are not getting the whole story, but instead the story from ex-colonialists who are bitter because they were'nt allowed to keep their stranglehold on the gold and diamonds, sort of like Cuba and their pissed off plantation owners and mafia in Miami.They'd love you to think that things are terrible and anti-capitalist down there, but Canadian and French oil companies and hotels are doing great. A big disconnect.
Bob - there is plenty of news about Zimbabwe in the MSM - outside of the US that is. The BBC regularly cover the situation, as do many of the UK quality dailies, so I am going to have to strongly disagree with your analysis. The Zimababwean crisis didnt just emerge in the last 6 months - its been on-going for the past decade as Mugabe changed from being a relatively benign one party state leader into something rather worse. Whichever way you cut it the correlation bewteen Mugabe's 'land reforms', attack on political opponents etc and the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy is rather tight I would say. I confess to having more than a passing interest in the area having lived for a time in Zambia (next door) and having travelled reasonably extensively in the area.
Just to go back again to Africa in general - I think there is a general misapprehension about how many of these states function, both now (and in the past). Thus as I mentioned above we are now getting any number of reports in the DrumBeat about failures in power supply etc, and these are being held up as evidence for PO collapse. Well they might be - and then again what most dont seem to realise is that Africa has always been like that to some extent. Power outages happened when I was there, and back then PO wasn't even in the frame. To give an example Westexas (and dont get me wrong I think he writes brilliantly) often quotes from a WSJ piece of last year which describes the implosion of Guinea and cites this as evidence of PO induced damage.
Well as this piece from October 2004 makes clear Guinea was already encountering electrical black outs and a host of economic problems as early as 2003:
http://www.afrol.com/articles/14446
The piece elaborates on numerous problems the country was facing back then (economic mismanagement again rears its ugly head). Now back in 2003 oil prices were only starting to get motoring, so what was causing the power outages then? Answer - the same things that cause a great many outages elsewhere in Africa.
I have no doubt that PO will do untold damage to Africa (and elsewhere); I just think that so far that damage is nowhere near as obvious (yet) as some folk are trying to make out.
andyh,
I suspect you're right. Our minds, our intellect always to make connections, especially ones that support a cherished opinion. We operate in a vacuum of real information on African countries and consequently put our own interpretation on the facts, whether reasonable or not.
A good example of this is Senegal as presented on TOD. I did a little research, and the suppliers of crude are unwilling to extend them more credit for oil, they are an economic basket case. Its sort of peak related, prices would be lower and more stable if crude were more plentiful, but the fact is they can't pay their bill and everybody wants cash from a bankrupt nation.
This doen't mean I think that this isn't related to peak oil. but its going to take a couple of dozen countries having similar problems while the rest of the world struggles for crude supplies before I will be convinced their shortages are peak related.
The old saying is "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck, then its a duck". But this assumes that the person making the judgement has observed the hypothetical duck quite a bit, plus several other ducks for comparison. This is the equivalent of a person following the revelation of duckhood concluding that duck must therefore sell insurance for one of Warren Buffet's companies.
Senegal is an economic basket case. With a low per capita income, around $800, how can they expect to get even, let alone ahead? Make investments? Lift themselves up by their bootstraps?
Lets try just one more thought experiment. Go put on your cowboy boots, grab the straps and lift! You'll notice that you aren't getting uplifted, at least in earth's gravity. Its impossible to do by ypurself. And thats the conumdrum that Senegal, Rhodesia, and Guinea all face.
Hello Jon Kutz,
Thxs for responding. If Mugabe had built a bicycle and wheelbarrow, along with other essential biosolar handtools, for every Zimbabwean before his economy collapsed--I think that would have been a good start. Community solar-heated baths and laundry would have been a big help tool. At a bare minimum: he should have established countrywide Humanure Recycling infrastructure to prevent sewage overflows and potable water pollution. I hope other leaders see the wisdom in early Peakoil Outreach and mitigation. Time will tell.
I am trying my best to avert a global machete' moshpit.
Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?
Do you realy mean that his failure were to not buy the right stuff before collapsing the economy?
Zimbabwes niche in a post pak oil world should be as a prosperous food and biofuel exporter plus various export goods made by the people not needed in farming. There is no reason for peak oil to make them into a basket case.
Mr Kutz
Perhaps the site should get a new masthead motto: Discussions About Our Energy and Our White Future.
If your sort of drivel, and the fact that it is unremarked, makes me not want to be here (I am by the way Swedish/German/Irish American) imagine how it plays for persons of non-white ancestry. Essentially the site is cutting itself off from the bulk of the planet. Fine.
On the other hand, your sarcastic suggestion amounts to saying that no black leadership of Zimbabwe could be as bad as the white leadership was. In other words, racism is the worst possible thing (even mass eviction and starvation of "human trash" isn't as bad as the rulers' skin tone being too white).
This is what happens when Political Correctness attempts to stamp out Inconvenient Truths. I'm sure a lot of Zimbabweans would beg to differ with you, and if it takes people with weak or no clan or tribal loyalties to supply the kind of good business administration and government leadership that keep e.g. rampant cronyism and tribal warfare from breaking out, a pale-complected government may be the lesser of evils. An evil to be replaced as soon as possible, of course, but with something better rather than worse.
My sarcastic suggestion implies no such thing. Political correctness has nothing to do with it. I do not tolerate the PC crowd. They would not be on this site 5 seconds.
If those who have some small insight into the future so far as it relates to Peak Oil are happy to simultaneously wallow in the most egregious racist crapola I wonder if there is a future.
My sarcastic suggestion implies no such thing. Political correctness has nothing to do with it. I do not tolerate the PC crowd. They would not be on this site 5 seconds.
If those who have some small insight into the future so far as it relates to Peak Oil are happy to simultaneously wallow in the most egregious racist crapola I wonder if there is a future.
I think Political Correctness has everything to do with it, though perhaps you don't recognize it as such (too well-internalized).
If someone makes a claim of fact about Zimbabwe, such as "The government, the economy and even many freedoms were better under white rule than they have become under Robert Mugabe", this can be debated on its merits. It is not racist if it is true, and recognizing its truth opens avenues for debate about ways to prevent the likes of a Robert Mugabe and his cronies from obtaining the power to reduce a country to ruin.
That's exactly what Mr. Kutz did above:
Your response was to sarcastically suggest that TOD should be subtitled "Discussions About Our Energy and Our White Future." Accusations of racism (even veiled) are one of the shibboleths of P.C.; it is a tactic to shut down debate and exile people whose questions must be banned because they cannot be answered without breaking out of the thought trap of P.C. dogma. ("Racist" in this context is actually an accusation of heresy.)
I get the heretic label from those holding to right-wing orthodoxies as well. I wear "heretic" as a badge of honor, so go ahead, devalue your orthodoxy's main slur until it's meaningless.
Forgetting all the rubbish you impute to me and cutting to the chase, yes, Kutz made that obscene remark about "lifestyles".
Know what a deathstyle is? Blacks had no right to live, no protection for their lives, nothing, under white rule. Rhodesians killed blacks for sport and Kutz wants to talk lifestyle. And you defend him. Screw off.
Does anyone outside of Mugabe's circle have that now?
Is the current 80% unemployment and starvation better than that? Further, was it legal to do so, or just hard to get justice? (US whites also killed blacks for sport, but it wasn't legally sanctioned even if some got away with it. We have made much progress in that area without someone like Mugabe rising to power—yet.)
I defend his right to raise the issue. Closing down discussion with slurs just guarantees that it will happen again, because no lessons will have been learned.
OTOH...perhaps it is unremarked because ignoring a behavior is the best way to extinguish it.
Or, as I've noticed my liberal aquaintances do, unremarked/ignored behavior/statements are the best way to not think about them.
Just liberals? Be honest.
In any case, I've thought a lot about it...and decided that for the most part, it's not really on-topic for TOD. Especially when the problem is intentionally phrased in a manner that is likely to generate heat, not light.
Anyway, I find stories like Zimbabwe and Pakistan interesting, not because they are necessarily signs of peak oil (though high fuel prices sure haven't helped), but because they give us a glimpse of how we are likely to react when energy grows scarce. That is why I post them, not because I think the problems are peak oil related.
That is why I posted the Canadian story about the area cut off by a flood. Obviously, that was an act of nature, not oil scarcity. But the effects might be a glimpse of our oil-scarce future.
just liberals and neocon clowns......bush, cheney, rummy, condi, wolffy, fieth, etal (et many), oh yeah the puppetmaster kkkarl rove.
Just liberals. They're the only ones who shout me down with tales of oil co.s conspiracies. Conservative types try to convince me benignly, "knowing" they've the upper hand.
Benign neglect as Saint Reagan called it reinforces racism.
Behavior is "extinguished" when those who display it cannot survive.
You, Leanan, are the best of us. It makes me sad that you live amongst the complacent and arrogant who happily proclaim "Me? Racist? You must be a PC liberal." They have nothing - nothing - to contribute. You do. Goodbye.
There is nothing that can be done because the guys that used to run the country are not going back.
Some news notes from sleeplessinmuscat.blogspot.com/ -
From http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news_main_page&id=160 - Saturday, June 9 -
'Also on Friday, Oman Oil announced that oil and gas operations have returned to normal. Shipments began at 11am on Friday.
The company kept producing oil throughout the cyclone period. Although shipping operations were halted as a precautionary measure, the company stored its output in storage tanks at Al Fahl Port. There was no damage at the company’s production facility.'
Please note that Oman's oil production is spread throughout the country, and only a part of Oman suffered from Gonu.
And this tidbit -
'Meanwhile, Oman Air on Friday resumed international flights. The first flight No.607 took off for Dubai, the UAE, at 9.00am. A source at Oman Air said this means that Seeb International Airport has started functioning. The source said Oman Air would resume all its flights scheduled before the cyclone hit the Sultanate.'
And from another article, also June 9 - http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=7745&heading=Oman -
'The airport was flooded. “Parts of the tarmac was flooded during the storm as there is a wadi there. But it is designed in such a way as not to retain water,” said the airport official. There was no damage to the runway lights but some communication equipment was damaged. “We had back up equipment, besides we have repaired the damage and everything is now normal,” the airport official added. Most of the passengers on Oman Air flights on Friday were those who were held up due to the storm. They were accorded priority. “Passengers who were in transit or who came from outside Muscat were provided hotel accommodation,” said an airline official. “The approach road to the airport was damaged and only a single lane was functioning – that led to traffic jams. There was no electricity and it was dark,” said an airline official.'
I keep having this feeling, based on my own experience in Germany in 1999, when an unanticipated hurricane hit, that there are more problems in and around Muscat than are currently being reported - because entire systems no longer function correctly, and the absence of news is considered good news - after all, if there were problems, then people would be reporting them, right?
For example, the airport is functioning - you can't really get to it, there is no electricity, and since the runway was designed to handle flooding, no concerns there either. But otherwise, everything is fine.
As for the gas and oil infrastructure - the export terminal is fairly near Muscat - seriously, there was no pipeline damage? Look at how the roads in that general region look after the storm, and try to seriously imagine that there was no pipeline damage at all. Again, simple speculation based on pictures which reach the Internet, done by an amateur - of course, arguably the people running the storm recovery efforts are beginners, who don't have any way experience in the scale of what has happened. They will afterwards, of course.
As for the LNG - anybody suggesting that things are up and running without problems at the loading facility will need a lot of proof before I believe their words compared to my lying eyes in terms of the geology where part of the facility is sited.
YouTube is now starting to get some post-Gonu videos.
Xeroid.
A blog translating a local paper on OmanForum: