Letters to the Editor
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Indonesia is the biggest oil exporter to China now.
I expect Indonesia is already or will soon be on the path to being a nuclear armed state. See 'superpowers' tend to do that. So if you're cheering that Russia now has a gigantic hammer to whack us with in their oil and gas, you should understand that they are a nuclear state, they are rapidly rebuilding their armed forces and they're not historically shy about using them. Buuuut - anything that's bad for America is good for Salon, I guess.
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Electro Robot, Klare's not cheering on Putin
He's berating the US in general and Bush in particular for pursuing policies that kept us addicted to oil -- and opened us up to Putin's putting Europe over a barrel.
Russia, as much as anything, is why Europe is frantically trying to get off oil and onto wind, solar, wave and geothermal sources of energy. They don't want to be Russia's tools any more than they want to be our tools.
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What's next?
The article and the letters I read make many good points, few of which will come a news to most Salon readers. But losing our superpower status is not necessarily a bad thing. We could be breathing a sigh of relief, kind of like a parent when the last child is not longer a mi or and leaves home. After all, it's been tough feeling all that responsibility of more than a half century.
The big issue facing Salon readers should be how we all can talk to friends and neighbors about this - how we can help convince most Americans than not feeling responsible for running everyone and everything can be well worth driving less, turning down the heat, turning up the air conditioning and eating a less meat, etc.
Again, I suspect most Salon readers already agree with that this article speaks to. More than being educated to these facts, we need dialog about the nuts and bolts of moving the country in the only feasible direction that remains; from former superpower to "mere" citizen of the world.
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Fantasy vs. Reality
BTW, the last two countries in the World that will run out of oil are Canada and the United States, since those two countries have by far the most oil resources than the rest of the World combined.
Proven Oil Reserves, in billions of barrels, from Oil & Gas Journal, January, 2007
Saudi Arabia 260
Canada 179
Iraq 115
Iran 105
Kuwait 99
United Arab Emirates 97
Venezuela 80
Russia 60
Libya 41.5
Nigeria 36.2
United States 21
Mexico 12
The United States is already pretty much out of oil. What's left is difficult to extract at best. Canada has enormous reserves, but they're mostly tied up in tar sands and are going to prove difficult to impossible to fully recover, at a price far higher than we're accustomed to.
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Then you should ask Norway
When they wean the EU from oil the Norwegians will become the backwater of Europe. No, the simple fact is that 'we' and by 'we' I mean 'us all' and not just 'those evil fat white guys in the White House today' haven't had a crucial enough incentive to to invest hundreds upon hundreds of billions of dollars to develop alternatives. Well the French did, but Nuclear isn't going to get any traction here.
Anyway, what does anyone think is a realistic horizon for this? 30 years? That's about right. Because if you're looking for magical infinite smile power next month, it's not going to be here. As always the transition costs are a bitch.
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Bush will go down in history...
as possibly the worse President in history. He ran the country just like he ran his oil company, straight off an economic cliff.
All empires eventually crumble under the weight of their own hubris, and lack of humility. Overreaching out of a power-mad desire to control the fates of all people - but it's an impossible task. It leads to ruin.
And just like the empires before ours, we are going to find out the hard way. Our stock portfolios and retirements will shrink, our mortgages will rise, wages will keep falling except for the elite stockpilers at the top.
And we will learn humility the hard way. One loss of opportunity at a time.
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Our Military Superiority : a grand illusion.
Our volunteer military is casualty averse, probably because it knows that dying soldiers make for bad press. We're not willing to make huge sacrifices because we all know that our military is really working for the rich.
And our high-tech military gear is pretty impressive in easy circumstances, but breaks down under stress. It's too damn complex and fragile. Military contractors are better at maximizing profits then making solid weapons.
America doesn't have all the brains in the world, and it's a lot cheaper to defeat high-tech then it is to make it. I bet in a few years some bright boys in China will figure out a way to neutralize our stealth technology.
Then we'll have to fight our wars the old fashioned way; with great cost and loss of life.
Not nearly as much fun as remote-control Mesopotamian turkey shoots.
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@Grubert
I bet in a few years some bright boys in China will figure out a way to neutralize our stealth technology.
It didn't take that long for some bright boys in Baghdad to figure out that a tank could be taken out with a few pounds of chemicals and a length of pipe. According to a story in the Washington Post, nearly two thirds of U.S. casualties in Iraq were the result of IEDs. I bet those suckers cost a few bucks apiece, and now the whole world knows how to use them. Thanks again, George.
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Ha, Ha
Not just Russia ....... yu kiss chinee ass too ...... you stupid americans ........ you send us all your jobs ....... now we have all your money too ..... we buy your bonds ..... loan you back some of your money ....... we make money on interests on bond and you use money we lend you thru buying bonds to buy more chinee stuff at Wal-Mart ...... we win-win ..... make money on both ends ....... you stupid americans ....... you suck chinee dick .....
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When your supply is preparing to exit the market, better have an alternative
I was amused by the comment from Amity that "Sovereign wealth funds are more about desperately trying to prepare for the post-oil economy than any sort of sinister plan."
Well, if the largest players in the market are looking for a post market strategy, it's time to find an alternative strategy. Who will the US draw its oil from? At what price?
In fact, I would suggest that the biggest issue facing the USA is the rising domestic demand for oil in oil producing countries (driven ever higher by subsidized pricing, as highlighed in the article). Iran imports 40% of its domestic petroluem products. Indonesia is almost/already a net importer of oil, having previously been an exporter.
The growth of the last 30 years and increasing demand in oil exporting countries and increased demand in India/Asia will be the major drivers from here on in.