Ouch!

It was not the time to talk back. That night was a celebration with a wonderful group of friends. Maybe now I can say what I was thinking. The following story from the Financial Times makes it essential.

Look, you have no idea how hard so many people have worked to get Peak Oil into the mainstream media; or for how many years; or at what price. I am a newcomer. I’ve only been at it for about four years. M. King Hubbert started in 1956. Ken Deffeyes, Colin Campbell, Richard Duncan, Walter Youngquist, Jay Hanson and others have been trying to get people to listen for decades.

It’s easy to admit something that can no longer be concealed: the proverbial elephant in the room. But to admit only half the truth is a damnable lie and it further endangers the lives and safety of billions and I’ll be damned if I’ll shut up or be politically correct.

Big Oil tells us that actual peak is further away than we know it to be. And the fact that in some cases they are even acknowledging a possible peak in three to five years means that it’s probably here right now. Remember Karen Silkwood?

Big Oil tells us that the problem is basically solvable. It is not. In the present reality, mankind is faced with only a partial chance of success in a desperate bid to soften the blow.

Big Oil makes this startling admission now, when just two years ago their annual reports to shareholders and press releases painted a completely different picture. In fact, they flatly contradict what Big Oil is saying today. Do the shareholders care? If we had a real SEC, it might care. Hail Caesar!

Big Oil tells us this now, when they are sitting – and I mean sitting – on mountains of cash that could actually be saving lives. It was Big Oil that lobbied to have American mass transit systems ripped up and destroyed in the 1950s. It was Big Oil and chemical companies like Monsanto that laid waste our farmland and our seed stock. Monsanto and other large corporations have actually patented living things. It was Big Oil that took away the American people’s basic knowledge of farming and gave us unfarmable pavement. It was Big Oil that unleashed a global warming which now breathes down our necks like a hungry Saber-toothed tiger.

Noticed any hurricanes lately? Been a little warm this summer? Heard of any blackouts anywhere? If this winter is cold you’d better know something about cold weather survival and candle making. Global warming does that by the way. It starts Ice Ages that spread rapidly. FTW will soon be offering a book for sale that shows that one ice age cold snap enveloped Europe in less than a year about 11,000 years ago. The book is dramatically understated about “anthropogenic” tinkering with the environment. Mankind is, at minimum, accelerating a mechanism that was already in place.

My fiancée, who is finishing a Master’s degree in Ecological Agriculture, casually said something to me yesterday, almost in passing. It was profound:

“Isn’t it possible that Mother Earth is developing a fever to rid herself of an infection?”

In a slightly more rational world, Big Oil’s money could be providing tax write-offs while at the same time being poured into a crash program for “remedial” energy sources before it’s too late. That money could be used to rebuild America’s railroads. That, more than anything, could save tens of millions of lives in the next fifteen years.

Nothing will replace oil and gas and we are now seeing that clearly. There is no more serious oil left to find or extract, even at a ridiculous cost. Has anyone noticed that the whole world is rushing to buy into the Canadian tar sands? China is already there. Now France’s Total is buying in. If there were anyplace else to go for oil, people, countries and corporations would be rushing there. We need three new Saudi Arabias today just to replace the impossible-to-hide-anymore global decline rates, especially in Norway, Indonesia and Mexico. They aren’t there. The world has not discovered a single 500 million-barrel field for more than two years. A 500 million barrel (“mega-”) field is conservatively just 1/500th of the estimated oil in Saudi Arabia that might be recoverable as of today.

Big Oil is lying about a lot. Most assuredly it will do everything possible to conceal and mislead about its responsibility for placing the entire human race in jeopardy and getting us into this mess in the first place.

Or, when the new energy bill is signed by George W. Bush, Big Oil might just start buying up (along with Warren Buffet) every major power and water utility in the country. They will be allowed to do that now for the first time since the Great Depression. Then – with the help of PROMIS software – Big Oil just might shut off the power selectively to any Enemies of the State it wishes: especially those who are too loud.

This new advertising is bullshit and no one should mistake it for any kind of victory or any reason to slack off and take a break.