The Tax Refusal - HUMANITY, PEAK OIL and TEOTWAWKI (The End of The World As We Know It)
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(The End of The World As We Know It) (17 of 19)
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Date: Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:12:46 -0500 [03/03/08 10:12:46 PM EST]
From: tax...@taxrefusal.com
To: tax...@taxrefusal.com
Subject: KEEP!! The Tax Refusal - HUMANITY, PEAK OIL and TEOTWAWKI
(The End of The World As We Know It)
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HUMANITY, PEAK OIL and TEOTWAWKI
(The End of The World As We Know It)
By Daniel J. Lavigne
In 1956 an American geologist, M. King Hubbert, provided America with
a study that
suggested it would reach the peak of production of its conventional
oil at some point in
the early 70?s.
By 1974 his argument was proven correct. Mathematical models proved
that America had
reached that "Peak Of Production" in the spring of 1970. His name and
the accuracy of the
prediction gave birth to the phrase: The Hubbert Curve.
America would never again be able to produce the oil so necessary to
satisfy its
insatiable and ever growing demands.
It now relies on other nations for, approximately, 60% of the oil
needed to drive /
support its economy and produce its food. Due to that ever increasing
demand for oil
versus the constantly declining production of its now depleted
reserves, that percentage
will continue to increase until the day that OPEC and other oil
exporting nations decide
to save their few remaining barrels for their own people and purposes.
President Carter, aware of what America faced, aware of the financial
havoc that such
would lead to, suggested that vehicles be driven at more reasonable
speeds, that
thermostats be turned down and efforts made to conserve the oil and
all other energy
resources then remaining. His dire but opportune message was ignored
and, finally,
vilified by opposing political forces, he failed to secure a second
term.
Ronald Reagan, promising to make everything available to all
Americans, won the
Presidency.
His first act as President was to order the solar panels installed on
the roof of the
White House by President Carter be immediately removed. (Therein is
found the root of the
claim by President Bush and his administration that America's
profligate and utterly
wasteful way of life is "Non-Negotiable".)
The world's future was then cast in the granite of greed's special
allure.
Those who preached conservation and preparations for a world with
insufficient oil to
fuel food production would be laughed at and then ignored. Those who
could not bear to
listen to, much less accept, Carter's timely warning, chose to
wantonly believe and act
on Reagan's foolish promise of "Sustainable Growth". Who, then, would
dare to try to wake
the world? After all, what would such do for them? How would any such
effort help build
"Their Bottom Line"?
By 2000 it was absolutely clear (At least it was clear to those who
thought of such
matters.) that the world faced another World War. This time, it would
be fought over
diminishing oil supplies and other resources so necessary to support
the American /
Western world's purported belief in "Sustainable Growth".
It is worth noting that it mattered not to the people of America and
the West that the
sanctions against Iraq had led to the deaths of over 1 million people,
prior to the
second attack on Iraq. Some 500,000 of them were children who were not
yet born at the
time of the action to force Saddam Hussein to remove his army from
Kuwait. (Hussein sent
his troops in after being informed by America's ambassador to Iraq
that America would not
mind or intervene in that "local" affair.) Those deaths didn't matter
to America and the
West as their insatiable greed for "More!" as best expressed by those
with power
sufficient to enforce that will for "More!", planned and dictated that
course of events.
What about the deaths of those children due to those sanctions? Who,
other than their
immediate families cared or were concerned about their untimely deaths
due to those
sanctions? Those deaths were a "Mere Statistic" according to Madeline
Albright who, as
America's Secretary of State claimed that such a cost was worth it; at
least it was worth
it to America's elite and their need to be in control of the flow of
oil from that area.
And therein resides the source of the many problems and threats that
we face and pose to
each other:
Having accepted and lived by the lies and claims offered to us by
politicians, we will
now accept ever greater lies, ignore the possibility of a human
activity induced "Runaway
Global Heating" and continue to lie to ourselves and each other,
including our children,
in order that we might remain in a state of denial with respect to
what nature and
history otherwise tell us we will soon suffer:
A series of environmental and ecological crises beyond the abilities
of our imaginations
to understand and prepare for; and, finally, after the use of all
nuclear and other
weapons of mass murder, we shall turn upon each other in a war of "All
Against All".
A war that will be driven and sustained by the greed of those who
refused to wake, who
refused to end their state of denial with respect to the pragmatic
reality of the
essential circumstances within which humanity exists.
Worse, we shall do our utmost to silence or otherwise mock, denigrate
and damn those who
would dare to suggest that we wake to such madness and consider
rational processes by
which we may yet be able to learn how to live within the limits of
earth's available
bounty and the changing circumstances of our existence. Circumstances
that will include
severely altered weather patterns. Weather patterns that are now
leading to mass flooding
where just a few years before we suffered drought, and the exact
opposite where we
previously depended on annual rainfalls to grow our food crops.
Is it possible that we may be able to change and thereby bring about a
new way of life
and not suffer the cost and consequences of our willful ignorance of
such matters? Given
our past acceptance of the dictates of a powerful few, is it possible
that we are simply
incapable of addressing the need to study why we are unable to deal
with that reality and
unable to use available knowledge to save ourselves from that which we
have always done
when faced with lack of resources sufficient to maintain our
politically driven and
guided models? Models that, alas, have always led the majority to mass
murder each other
at the behest of a powerful minority.
So, where do we go from here?
Matthew Simmons, head of Simmons International, one of the most
recognized and respected
bankers to the world's oil and gas drilling industry, claims that the
world passed the
"Worldwide peak of production of conventional oil" at some point in
early 2005. Professor
Emeritus geology, Kenneth Deffeyes of Princeton University states that
it took place at
some point by December of that year. Others, having access to similar
sources of
information, tell us that, if not yet reached, such a peak will most
probably be reached
by the end of 2008.
My revised estimates, first made public in 1998 and posted to
http://www.taxrefusal.com
suggested that we would reach the peak at some point in 2007.
If we faced the peak of production, with no other considerations, is
it possible that we
could get by without letting loose the dogs of war? Perhaps. But it is
best to understand
that, at each and every point in our past when we faced generalized /
localized resource
depletion that we moved from such areas, suffered severe population
collapses or resorted
to war in order to secure the bounty remaining available to our nearby
neighbors.
Simmons et al now suggest that the "Peak" shall be followed by a
depletion rate of some
3% per year "Until we run out of thermodynamically available supplies
of all such oil" at
some point in the time frame 2037 to 2050. I published a similar
viewpoint in 1998. Vice
President Cheney, as the CEO of Halliburton in 1999, stated a very
similar viewpoint.
Note that we are using some 29 BILLION barrels of oil per year. The
recent find off the
coast of Brazil will provide us with a total of some 8 billion
barrels. That is less than
a third of what we use, each year. And the sum of all discoveries in
the recent past has
been no different. The end of our dependence on oil, an end imposed by
nature, is in
sight. Yet, there is no other known energy source, individual or
collective, that will be
able to replace / supplant the energy now supplied to us by
conventional oil.
Indeed . . . . .
Geologists involved in the oil drilling industry inform us that NO new
finds of oil have
come close to the magnitude of such as the Gawar field in Saudi
Arabia.
First found some 60 years ago, Gawar's oil simply flowed under its own
pressure to a
multitude of collection points. Today, some six to seven millions of
barrels of water
must be pumped into the field, each day, in order to help pump the
rapidly depleting flow
of oil from its many well-heads.
It is wise to note that all of our "Giant Fields" have reached
critical states of
depletion. In the last 40 years no similar sized fields have been
found to replace their
rapidly diminishing output.
Somewhat smaller fields, such as the North Sea bonanza and the similar
find on Alaska's
North Slope, are now recognized to be depleting at a rate of some 8%
to 12% per year.
Mexico's famed Cantarell field is displaying a similar depletion rate.
A depletion rate
that may force Mexico to cease its oil exports to America within the
next five years.
Some have placed their hopes on the development of such as Canada's
tar sands and a
similar type of oil found in Venezuela. But mathematical models inform
us that those
fields will never produce oil in sufficient quantity to replace the
oil that will soon no
longer be produced from those "Giant Fields". Nor will the limited
production of such oil
slow, or protect us from, the collapse of industrialized civilization
as we presently
know it.
Worse, there is a great possibility that the mining of Alberta's Tar
Sands will lead to a
local environmental crisis if and when the huge berms constructed to
hold billions of
gallons of liquid waste product from the production process are ever
breached and that
waste product then flows, via adjacent rivers, into the MacKenzie
Delta. Such an event
would then threaten all birds and other wildlife in that area; and the
local folks and
natives who rely on those birds and animals as a food source.
Our concerns about Peak Oil and its ramifications are made greater
when we realize that
we must also contend with a non-stop population growth that now sees
us have to confront
an ever growing demand for oil that increases by some 2% per year.
Given the nature of our greed and the nature of our religions and
religious beliefs,
there is little chance that any sort of meaningful equilibrium shall
be reached whereby
we shall be able to reverse the increase in demand for more oil and
learn to live within
the limits imposed upon us by a nature that cares not about our
survival as a species.
Worse, we face a non-stop growth in various religious beliefs that
lead the masses to a
mindless worship of gods that they believe will some how help them be
victorious, slay
all others and thereby gain sole access to whatever remains of the
earth's original
stores of oil and other energy sources.
Is it possible, within the limited time available, to confront the
various mantras of
religious beliefs and what they have caused us to do to each other?
Perhaps.
But one would be venturing but a guess if he / she stated that we have
some chance of
doing so. It is entirely possible that our infection by and belief in
such denies us any
chance of confronting the reality of Peak Oil and its subsequent costs
and consequences.
The war against "Terror", as practiced by those who cause that terror
to grow
exponentially, guarantees our inevitable collapse into a society of
survivors who shall
have little reason to applaud or cherish that survival.
Indeed, given that such as President Bush and his cohorts have mocked
and made
meaningless all of America's prior achievements, there is little
presently evident reason
to hope that survivors of the fast approaching use of all weapons of
mass murder shall
have stamina and survival instincts sufficiently embedded within their
so stressed
psyches as to generate a new belief in the value of life.
Ergo, by our actions in permitting the madness of greed to so infect
and harm us, we have
actually guaranteed that our sense of humanity, if such it can be
called, will fester
for untold millennia prior to any recovery and proper utilization of
that which first led
us to learn how to operate on a child's heart while still in its
mother's womb.
Signs of the impending collapse (1):
Travelling through America, on the way to a vacation in Central
America in October of
2007, I was struck by a strange change on America's highways.
Whereas in the early 60's we would notice all sorts of individuals on
the highways, some
in old rattletrap jalopies and others driving the latest V8 of
whatever make or name, we
now note that few individuals of little means dare risk their small
savings on a trip
whereby they might be rendered destitute due to a failure of their
less than fit
vehicles. Rather than risk such voyages, America's working poor and
the like now rely on
buses and trains to reach their intended destinations.
And therein resides the kernel of another painful observation:
The increased use of such means of travel has led to the development
of "Security
Forces", most of which are trained to practice the harshest of
measures when getting such
travelers to wait in silence and to never complain lest they be
ejected from the waiting
rooms related to such conveyances and possibly "Held for questioning
for cause". How
could America, brave, bright America, fall to such a level from those
days in our youth
when we were free to speak out and suggest that politicians were our
servants and not, as
present, the other way around?
And so it goes.
America's cities are no longer havens for patriotic and mutually
caring for each other
citizens. Many of them have turned into cauldrons of hate and extremes
of anxiety wherein
the majority are insecure and, suffering the psychosis that always
develops due to such
insecurity, are left to suffer the knowledge that they exist on a
pinpoint balance. One
that they are now starting to realize can tip against them at any
time, wherever they
might be.
What will happen in such cities as the reality of Peak Oil hits home?
What will happen as the cost of securing food sufficient to feed one's
family surpasses
the ability of all within any such families to provide the means by
which they may
purchase that necessary food?
What happens when we lack fossil fuels sufficient to power our farm
tractors, sow our
seeds and bring in the hoped for harvests?
What happens when, at last, driven by a hunger that has no hope of
being met, we abandon
hope and rely on our weapons in order to "guarantee" that our families
will be able to
have one more meal, even if we have to take it, by force, from our
nearby neighbors?
What happens when our political leaders call upon our sons and
daughters in the military
to turn their weapons on all who fail to stand and wait, as ordered,
for the hoped for
delivery of food, regardless of the nature of that food or the length
of that wait?
Yet, in spite of the above, in spite of now realizing the many
hardships we face, we must
not abandon hope.
We must steel ourselves to make the necessary effort to finding a
possible way to deal
with the approaching crisis. And we must learn that we dare not trust
our political
leaders. After all, it is they, with their will to lie when need be,
that permitted us to
avoid having to think of such matters as the impossibility of
"Sustainable Growth", a
model that was foisted upon us in order that the rich become richer
while the masses
continue their struggles to merely survive.
Survive?
I suggest that the only way to survive, on a collective basis, is for
everyone to ignore
politicians and their useless edicts and commit themselves to the good
of all. It won't
be easy, but as far as I am able to visualize a possibility of the
majority surviving,
all that we can depend on is each other. Period. (And I also suggest
that such a majority
will consists solely of those who are prepared to immediately start
planning and
preparing for the now foreseeable and unavoidable collapse of our
current way of life.)
For such to work, EVERYONE must pledge to never again ache for clothes
or things produced
by others working for starvation level wages. We must also promise to
use each and every
day of the rest of our lives to help grow food for everyone around us.
Absent such a decision, by everyone, we shall suffer the total use of
our will and
capacity to mass murder millions, "If Need Be", in accordance with the
demands of leaders
who will refuse to be party to a development wherein individuals
actually start to act as
if they truly understand that their long term welfare is dependent on
the long term
welfare of all others.
Signs of the impending collapse (2):
Some leaders have started to suggest that their nations have a right
to do as they will
in order that they might avoid suffering the wants, deprivations and
the pangs of long
term hunger that shall be the common situation for the rest of
humanity as nature has its
way and our previous acceptance of "The Population Bomb" forces us to
wake to a new
reality: A reality that demands of us that we live in a manner that
leads us to lower our
numbers and to subsequently keep those numbers in check.
Readers are advised to study the Matthew's Island experiment wherein a
small number of
healthy breeding pairs of Reindeer were placed on an island filled
with abundant Lichen
and no predators. The outcome of that experiment tells us, exactly,
what we shall soon
face.
If we should fail to heed the lessons thereby granted to us, nothing
will help us evade
what we shall then do to each other. Then, what?
Professor Skinner's experiments with mice and rats tell the same
story.
There are "Limits To Growth" and it is unfortunate, so very
unfortunate, that we failed
to listen to those who spent their lives trying to tell us that we are
no different than
any other animal species, that we are as bound by the laws of nature
and concepts such as
"Overshoot" and Liebig's "Law of The Minimum" as are all other life
forms. Note that we
should also learn about "Jevon's Paradox" and guard against the mass
use / adoption of
whatever new sources of energy that we may yet find prior to suffering
the otherwise
unavoidable collapse.
That America may well fall into a state of generalized anarchy can no
longer be doubted.
Absent a general will to conduct ourselves as "Human Beings", we will
act as the animals
that we are. Doing so, it is entirely possible, and most likely,
probable, that we will
do anything and everything that we dare hope will assist "us" to
survive, regardless the
consequences to all others. Can such, truly, be called "An acceptance
of Life"? Will
such, truly, end up being "The American Way"?
What about the rest of the world?
Some nations, not blessed with our first and predominating access to
oil and the energy
it provided to us and thereby helped us hold sway over the rest of
humanity for some 150
years, will not suffer to the extent that we shall.
They, used to hard work and doing with little that we believed we
needed to more fully
enjoy life's pleasures, shall be able to deal with the shortage of
oil. They shall merely
continue to focus on the job at hand: Providing food, via their own
knowledge and
efforts, for their families.
Having maintained their skills, knowledge and habits with respect to
growing, harvesting,
storing and local delivery and utilization of their food supplies,
they shall fare far
better than the people of Western Europe and America.
Canada, what about Canada?
Whatever shall be suffered by the people of America, shall be suffered
on a much greater
scale by those Canadians unfortunate enough to have lived the totality
of their lives in
cities wherein everything was delivered to local stores for
disbursement via business /
commercial processes.
Those who lived in smaller villages and continued to grow a portion of
their food shall
have a somewhat easier time. But they will not be able, in the short
term, to develop the
barter and other trade mechanisms that they previously used to share
with their
neighbors. Those skills will return, but only after a long period of
doing without many
of the things that our grandparents had the foresight to develop and
broadly utilize.
(I speak as someone now 67 years of age. My grandparents, on my
mother's side, raised ten
children without reliance on electricity, running water, or local
stores to supply items
that were otherwise available to those who lived in Canada's larger
cities. They grew
their own food, raised their own chickens, goats, cows and such,
plowed their fields with
their own horses, built their own homes, barns and other buildings and
made their own
clothes, harnesses and whatever else it took to "survive".)
Shall we be able to do the same?
We shall be able to do so if we start "Now" to prepare for what is,
quite simply, an
unavoidable change in our near future circumstances.
Some might choose to implore of such as President Bush that he prepare
America to lay
waste to the rest of the world in order that we may secure access to
the Mid-East's
remaining oil for ourselves and no other. But, what about China and
its nuclear tipped
missiles? What about Russia and its determination to never again be
the helpless victim
of some other nation's greed for "More!"?
What about Iran and its determined intent to build a nuclear power
generating facility to
replace its fast waning dependence on the little oil it has left
remaining in its aging
and now severely depleted oil fields? What about the threat, posed by
President Bush,
that he shall employ nuclear weapons, if need be, in order that Iran
be forced to end its
non-existent plans to produce nuclear weapons?
When will we deal with the greed that now drives our political
processes?
When will we utilize the Nuremberg Principles to put an end to threats
against other
nations by such as President Bush and his willing cabal of criminals?
When will we say "NO!" to madmen who would have us send our sons and
daughters to foreign
lands to murder the sons, daughters and whole families of other
societies in order that
we may, for a few more years, drive to a local corner store for a six
pack of beer and a
pizza? Have we no shame? Will we permit such madness to curse our
steps into the new
paradigm that will, with or without us, form as a result of "The End
of Oil"?
Now, what about the children?
How will we prepare them for the new and fast approaching reality?
Are we to continue the lies that have them believing that there is
nothing they need be
concerned about with respect to their near term future?
The only way to proceed is to start a process by which our children
can learn, as quick
as possible, that we will soon be reduced to a struggle to survive.
A struggle that will center on our ability to grow food and store,
share and prepare it
on a community basis. If we can achieve that goal, teaching ourselves
and our children to
learn how to make our own clothes and provide shelter against the
extremes of weather, we
will be on the way to a new world, one wherein "Human Values" may very
well develop as a
needed replacement to the religious creeds and credos that have set us
against each other
for far too long.
Now, the most serious of questions must be addressed:
How can we help the vast majority avoid falling into a pit of
depression from which they
may well be unable to exit?
How can we ensure that our children do not grow so despondent that
suicide, to them,
becomes a viable and suitable option?
Most importantly:
How can we get those who would lead us to now admit the truth of our
predicament?
I suggest that, if we can do so, that the rest is quite possible and
that "The End of
Oil" will be looked upon, in retrospect, as an event that caused us to
wake to the
reality and limits of our existence.
However, given the scope of many accusations and well documented
concerns as to the true
nature of the attack on the World Trade Towers, it could well be that
the West's
political leaders long ago abandoned all hope of dealing with the
advance of peak oil and
decided to set in place a set of laws permitting them to do as they
will in order that
they and their chosen few may survive the madness that shall otherwise
abound, worldwide.
Indeed, some now suggest that the destruction of those towers was
planned as an "A
Priori" event leading to the quick imposition of laws that would
permit such as President
Bush to murder, torture and maim anyone and everyone who opposed the
development of a new
way of life in America. One more akin to what existed in the times of
Stalin in Russia
and Hitler in Germany than that which we were led to believe through
our educational
processes was guaranteed to us, forever.
I offer the possibility that the destruction of those towers, via
aircraft, was
anticipated and then so utilized as soon as America discovered a plot
that was developed
in the mid-90's in the Far-East with respect to hi-jacking aircraft
and using them to
destroy many of America's recognized landmarks.
(Added this March 5, 2008:
It is now known that the attacks were to be aimed at 11 airliners with
a hoped for death toll of some 4,000 passengers.)
All that needed to be done, if a determined will existed to use
whatever measures
necessary in order to control the populace subsequent to the
development of widespread
knowledge that peak oil would lead to harsh times for all, was to
place the necessary
explosives in those towers and allow such as Osama Bin Laden to
succeed in their public
boast to destroy those very towers. That America's leaders knew the
attack was coming is
no longer in doubt. That they may well have planned to then permit it
to be successful is
something for which President Bush, Vice President Cheney and their
cabal of criminals
should stand trial.
It must be recognized that many people in positions of authority with
respect to those
buildings had ties to the Bush administration. And it must be admitted
that the owner of
Building 7 of the World Trade Towers, Mr. Larry Silverstein, stated on
national TV,
approximately 6 months after 9/11, "..we decided to pull it.".
So, there we have it.
It has been admitted that there were explosives pre-planted in one of
those towers. Are
we to assume that effort was not duplicated in the other towers?
To sum, it is entirely possible that President Bush was informed by
his friends in the
Saudi Arabian royal family that Osama Bin Laden couldn't be persuaded
to not attack
America and that America should anticipate that attack. We note that
President Bush,
after shutting down all aircraft traffic throughout North America,
permitted some of Bin
Laden's relatives to board an aircraft and return to Saudi Arabia.
That action prevented
the possibility of their being lawfully detained and questioned as to
the extent of their
knowledge of that attack and what they may have told President Bush
prior to that attack.
The fact that America's vaunted Air Force failed, miserably so, to
intercept any of the
aircraft involved, especially after they had recently intercepted and
monitored the
aircraft of a famous golfer minutes after a report from the civil
aviation authorities
that the pilot had failed to respond to various queries, suggests that
they were either
misled, or that there exists a group of military officers in America
who, aware of the
conditions of life in nations that have not had the benefits of our,
to-date, unlimited
access to oil, are determined to help whichever politician put in
place a series of
preparations that will lead to a "Fortress America" and the virtual
enslavement of its
populations to the will, wants and edicts of a select few as the
otherwise uncontrollable
cost and consequences of Peak Oil hit home.
The purported "accidental" loading of six (6) nuclear tipped missiles,
contrary to all
standing orders, on a B52 Bomber, for delivery from Minot Air Force
base to the central
base in Louisiana that is now the departure point for flights to Mid-
East hot spots,
suggests that someone either intended to use those weapons in another
9/11 type act
against America, or to use them, without official sanction by the Bush
administration,
against Iran.
Retired Air Force officers who were once responsible for the security
and safe-keeping of
all such missiles state that such an event had to be cleared by
someone in the Bush
administration, or cleared by a cabal of criminals who are determined
to seize power for
themselves as America begins its fast slide towards anarchy as we run
out of fossil fuels
sufficient to drive our economy and our food production. Otherwise,
there exists no
schedule of permitted actions by which that event could have taken
place.
So, where are we in the free fall towards the end of the world as we
know it (TEOTWAWKI)?
Do we have ten years to prepare? Five? Or less?
Options versus Solutions
It is doubtful that any possible solution exists to solve / ameliorate
the onset of
Peak Oil and its subsequent consequences.
Suggesting that we immediately park and abandon our personal use
vehicles is a political
non-starter.
(Added this March 5, 2008:
I have become aware of a plan now in process of being evaluated by
several "Think Tanks" to bring about an 80% reduction in the use of
"personal vehicles". I will keep all informed when and if I am able to
gain further knowledge of that plan. However . . . )
Any politician who would dare to promote such knows that they risk
losing their pay,
position and any possible promotion to higher office. No politician
known to us today has
shown any moral or other fiber that would be sufficient to support and
promote that
necessary act.
Suggesting that the world's nations make an agreement whereby all work
to end our
dependence on fossil fuels as soon as possible is also a non-starter.
First, our politicians' collective personal greed for political power
prevents them and
thereby us, from coming to any such agreement to share the remaining
oil equitably. We
will fight wars before being forced to so share. Count on it.
Should you doubt that assertion:
Ask such as President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
They have made their position clear:
America's way of life is Non-Negotiable.
That means, to all other nations, that either they willfully surrender
their oil and
other natural resources to America, at prices that America is willing
to pay, or they
face the threatened use of America's nuclear arsenal. However, when
such nations,
regardless of their ability to defend themselves, decide that their
honor and principles
demand of them that they refuse to yield to such threats, we will see
the use of all such
weapons. The world will then sink into an abyss of madness that will
last for many
decades after the last of our nuclear weapons are used, against each
other.
We have little choice. Either the whole of humanity willfully chooses
to confront the
reality of the coming crisis and we park our personal use vehicles and
save the remaining
oil to fuel our farm tractors and food transport vehicles, or we
choose to remain in a
state of denial until the now developing economic collapse leads us to
World War III.
Our choice should be clear.
But our infection by the madness of greed and the years of our lives
spent wasting the
earth's available bounty dictates that we have little hope of
collectively confronting
the crisis.
Ergo:
We are left to choose, as individuals, from a very small set of
options.
Option 1:
Discover some far away hideout where you can escape the consequences
of too great a
nuclear fallout, grow your own food and not have to be constantly on
guard to protect it
from those who, unable to fend for themselves, will have no choice but
to try to survive
by stealing the food and other supplies of whoever they might come
across or whose food
caches they might stumble upon. To have any hope of successfully
"surviving" in such a
scenario, you must have a rather comprehensive skill set, including an
ability to
diagnose medical ills, treat fractures, make harnesses, clothes, plows
etc. Absent
possession of such skills and an intellectual ability and stamina to
endure actually
living in such circumstances, your best bet is:
Option 2:
And that is to develop and stay within a tight knit community, one
that has come to terms
with the coming crisis and wherein everyone has forgiven all others
for whatever slights
or crimes, real or imagined and made a truly honest and collective
decision to work
together to provide the needed food, clothes and shelter as required
and to also stand by
each other whatever happens. For this option to succeed, your
community must be located
far from any possible areas where we can anticipate nuclear fallout.
Also, in order to
develop the best possible chance of staying together as a close knit
group, all must do
their best to contribute to the community's ability to learn to be
self-supporting. Such
means that you must start to immediately spread the word in that
community about the
reality of "Peak Oil" and its unavoidable costs and consequences. You
must also bring on
board a cadre of the older, calmer and more reflective personages
within that community
to help give a sense of hope and direction to everyone else.
Option 3:
Make a decision to do your utmost to survive where you presently live;
and do everything
in your power to enable yourself and family to provide yourselves with
everything you
need, through your own efforts and to protect each other from any
outsider who might
presume to have a right to your food and other supplies. In order for
this to be a viable
option, you must purchase as many seeds, clothing, weapons, ammunition
and other hard
goods as you can envision shall be necessary to your attempts to
survive and, for a
period of some years after the crash is well and truly underway, you
should avoid, as
best as possible, having anything to do with anyone who is not part of
your immediate
family and / or survival group.
Option 4:
I doubt that we have any more options, other than surrendering to the
madness and
prepare to party until widespread anarchy suggests that we become as
hardened and as
prepared to kill as our neighbors; and do it before they do the same,
to us.
Sorry. But that is what we face, if we fail to start thinking,
immediately, about that
which the whole of humanity will soon endure and why we allowed it to
happen.
**************************
Should this message to the world inspire you to do something about the
coming crisis:
Go to "Your Neighborhood Network" http://www.ynn.info and use the
"Free Ads" in the
"Politics" section to inform your neighbors of the need to prepare for
a fast approaching
day when we will be forced to depend on ourselves and no other.
The operative word is "Community".
Help guide / develop yours to a point whereat everyone knows and
understands that we must
ALL accept that a new paradigm is being formed; a paradigm that will
involve hard work
performed by all.
Note that the people of Cuba responded as they had to respond when,
following the
collapse of the USSR, they could no longer expect to be supplied with
oil to fuel their
food production. During the time they spent learning how to co-operate
with each other in
order to produce the food they needed, everyone lost some 14% of their
body weight. Even
now, there are few obese people in Cuba. The same will soon happen
throughout the world.
With respect to our need to maintain a certain level of agricultural
output:
I urge all farmers to develop a means to protect their beasts of
burden from being
slaughtered for food by starving individuals to whom "tomorrow" will
be a meaningless
abstract.
May all do their utmost to survive with honor and principles intact.
Thank you.
Daniel J. Lavigne, Founder,
International Humanity House
*******************************
Please also note that I shall be revising and adding to this article
as time permits and
changing conditions call upon me to do so. Stay tuned.
Copyright November 2007 All Rights Reserved.