Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The hard work of reinventing democracy in a post-imperial America, the subject of several of last month’s posts, is only one facet of this broader challenge. I’ve mentioned before that the pursuit of empire is a drug, and like most other drugs, it makes you feel great at the time and then wallops you the next morning.
A few weeks before I left, John Michael Greer published a fictional story about America losing its hegemonic grip entitled How it could Happen. The opening…focused on a proxy war between China and the US in east Africa over oil rights following a discovery in Tanzania…I was on the lookout for evidence of its feasibility when I visited Kenya. I didn’t have to look far.
When empires crumble, as they always do, the result is often a free-for-all among previous subject nations and potential rivals as they sort out power relations.
There is a growing disconnect between forecasts of prodigious amounts of oil coming out of the Middle East in coming decades and what is likely to happen in the region.
Globally, only two reports are published on an annual basis wherein the world’s energy situation is fully scrutinized…A number of years ago China decided it needs its own version of the truth.
•Meet the man the oil industry goes to for a voice of gravitas in the US election •Iran MPs draft law to cut oil exports by a third •Balance of power shifts in changing world of oil •Federal scientists muzzled on oilsands •Oil lobby and Koch-backed groups spent $270m on anti-Obama ads
A mid weekly update.
A mid weekly update.
*Insight: Is Ohio’s "secret" energy boom going bust?
*Russia Off Limits to Big Oil After BP Wins Putin Approval
*Delta Boys: Powerful Documentary Chronicles Niger Delta Oil Struggle
A weekly review including:
-Oil and the Global Economy
-The Middle East
-The EU’s Crisis
-China
-Quote of the Week
-The Briefs
-Commentary
The election is now just weeks away, and I want to urge those whose values are generally in line with mine — progressives, especially activists — to make this goal one of your priorities during this period.
In early October, the eco-village, Änggärdet, Sweden, hosted two days of Live Action Role-Play (LARP) along the theme of life 2016-2027, post peak oil and post economic collapse. Players got the opportunity to explore what various scenarios would be like, including being commaned into a work detail bu the military to harvest the last remaining potatoes by hand, and by joining a self-organised, worked-by-hand co-housing combi-farm.
