The Empire 174

Een achtergrondverhaal:

'According to acclaimed physicist Michio Kaku: “Any advanced civilization must grow in energy consumption faster than the frequency of life-threatening catastrophes (e.g. meteor impacts, ice ages, supernovas, etc.). If they grow any slower, they are doomed to extinction. This places mathematical lower limits on the rate of growth of these civilizations.”
Kaku says that to survive requires growing sources of energy just to keep pace with demand, "Specifically, we can rank civilizations by their energy consumption”
And America leads our world in energy consumption. Unfortunately, we derive most of our energy from a commodity that we don’t have enough of, oil. According to some, we can begin to find the alternative resources to build a secure energy future right here within our borders.
But others, already invested in the infrastructure of the past have another plan for us. What they don’t have for themselves, they can just steal from those who do.
America’s most giant corporations have Oil rich Islam staring down the barrels of their hired guns. But while Exxon and Unocal drool at the prospect of how they can best divie up the loot from what may later be known as History’s greatest armed robbery, it’s time the rest of us pause to think outside the box.
Consider. Our planet’s limited supply of oil was created on earth millions of years ago and will eventually either run out or become thermodynamically and economically worthless.
And remember, it takes energy to drill for oil let alone refine and transport it for market. In order for civilization to benefit from an energy resource, the finished product must be able to release more energy when put to work, than was used to prepare and develop it. As the easy to find oil is exhausted, the more difficult to extract oil that remains is less useful. Eventually, despite advances in drilling technology, the world’s oil will become less attractive than available alternatives or may simply become worthless as a source of useful energy.
As that day approaches, we live in an America long since petroformed by the oil industry from a land of independent family farms and businesses, to a nation dependent like serfs on their lord, on the barons of oil for everything from fuel to fertilizer. Today as we watch without protest, a new Feudalism is being forged worldwide by their mighty armies, our indignation subdued by the prospect of fueling our SUVs with cheap ill begotten oil.
And we will kill for them.
Finding the High GroundThe high ground of the future is wherever the net energy is. That’s the energy we can put to work without having to expend much existent energy to get it.'

Lees verder: http://www.culturechange.org/issue20/Last%20days%20of%20America.htm