'US Invasion of Iraq was a Resource War'

[chlamor]

My Comment: Just a Reminder

'US invasion of Iraq was a resource war'

By Melanie Gosling


Cape Town - With the rapid decline of global oil supplies, the United States is heading for an economic crash unlike anything since the 1930s. And the collapse of the dollar will affect every nation on earth.

<snip>

"The energy conundrum is thus intimately tied to the fact that we anticipate perpetual growth within a finite system," Heinberg said.

He sketches four main options available in response:

Following the US leadership in competing for remaining resources through wars;


Wishful thinking that the market or science will come to the rescue;


Assuming that we are already in the early stages of disintegration, devoting our energies to preserving the most worthwhile cultural achievements of the past few centuries.


"Powering down" - reducing energy resource use drastically through economic sacrifice, reducing the population size and developing alternative energy sources.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&click_id=2813&art_id=vn20050503072119511C128182&set_id=6

[bemildred]

1. Yeah, excellent piece, you beat me to it.

Clearly, our government favors the "Road Warrior" approach.

[Coastie for Truth]

2. Too Late

We have frittered away our scientific and engineering base to find the set of scientific and technical fixes.

If we had stuck with Carter's energy (alternative, renewable, conservation) policies, it would not have been mere "Wishful thinking that ... science will come to the rescue." But we have lost a generation.

The war in Iraq is evidence that "we are already in the early stages of disintegration..."

Kind of fits into Bush's Rapture theology.

[raccoon]

3. "Rapture" seems like an inappropriate word

for what could be a meltdown (I know that religious extremists use the term). "Rupture" is more like what is going to happen.

[bemildred]

4. I like "singularity" myself. But "rupture" works. nt

[Eloriel]

5. And of course, there's no reason why we can't pursue more than 1

I of course am against the first, pretty much without exception (tho I would want us to defend ourselves on our own shores), but I don't see any reason to exclude the possibility of technological fixes (while not "waiting on them," of course), and the other two just make good sense to me.