Chris

Thank you for an excellent pair of Key Posts! Of course they are not likely to do any good before the oil junkies have blown up that last toe vein and are just stabbing themselves senselessly looking for another place to fix.

Its time to do the heretofore unthinkable, and demand that no more internal combustion engines be sold new in North America, and go full tilt into Alan Drake's Electrification of Rail program. Its the only possibility that has a real chance of success while helping society transition to the inevitable, renewables as the only energy available.

The problem is that its going to require real sacrifice by every industry in the world, and every family in North America. We are going to have to ask the oil industry to change by shrinking by 70% by changing away from fuel refining and marketing to industries like marketing electricity from renewable energy. Its going to kick the value out of every vehicle in North America while many people still owe years of payments. Its going to add another huge area of worthless loans to a financial industry thats already imploding. And in order to stop the exponential growth overseas we are going to have to help the people of Africa and Asia leapfrog fossil fuel to renewables. Only prosperous people cut birthrates, and it will do no good unless we can help them stop what appears to be a drive off the cliff as world demand continues to grow as supply contracts.

Its not unthinkable-society has put entire industries out of business before-look at asbestos-and tried to slowly choke off others, such as tobacco or nuclear until they started expanding again as we looked for another toe vein.

But real patriots have acted against their personal economic interests before with the right inspiration and leadership.

I urge everyone to read the 50 page pdf history of the Big Inch and Little Inch pipelines during the second world war (google Big Inch Oil Pipeline) and also remember the Marshall Plan, where the US aided Germany and Japan to rebuild into modern industrial countries after the horrors of WW II. The Oil business actually destroyed millions of dollars worth of pipelines to get the steel and valves to build the first transcontinental oil and products lines at less than its cost so the Allies had enough fuel to invade Europe. The industrial might of the US was used to rebuild the industries of Europe so that they could become our only real economic competitors because we realised that was the only way to stop the horrible wars that kept convulsing the world.

And its now our turn to step up to the plate, but we can't do it without actual leadership that transcends the normal boundries that are used to seperate the world's people. Global warming isn't a liberal or conservative issue. Peak cheap energy isn't a Republican or Democrat issue. And living on the same planet with billions of hopeless poor people that have a huge population growth transcends any label. But we have to get actual leaders on this, not demagogues that want to divide us so they can rule us,.
Bob Ebersole