Showing posts with label Peak EVERYTHING. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peak EVERYTHING. Show all posts
Saturday, October 23, 2010
The Dispossessed WILL Inherit... "How (not to) to Organize a Community" - Dimitry Orlov
"...You see, upon close examination the English word “community” turns out to be all but meaningless..." [In Full]
"...suppose that our two communities are in an English-speaking country, which is likely to be afflicted with the irrational belief that the free market can solve all problems on its own, even problems with the availability of critical supplies such as oil. Just as one would expect, the invisible hand of the market fails to make itself visible,"How (not to) to Organize a Community
Dimitry Orlov
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Resource Clock Courtesy of Poodwaddle
[Pop out a larger version]
In the midst of all this organizational activity neighbors get a chance to meet, perhaps for the first time, and discover a commonality of interests that leads them to form acquaintances and perhaps even friendships.
As neighbors get to know each other, they start looking out for each other, improving safety and reducing crime.
As the community becomes more tight-knit, it changes in atmosphere and appearance, becoming more fashionable and desirable, attracting better-educated and more prosperous residents while pricing out the undesirable element. News of these vast improvements spreads far and wide, and the community becomes a tourist mecca, complete with food festivals, swank boutiques and pricy bric-à-brac shops and restaurants.
The undesirable element is forced to decamp to a less desirable neighborhood nearby. There, it has no choice but to suffer with high levels of crime, but is typically afraid to ask the police for help, having learned from experience that the police are more likely to harass them then to help them, to arrest them for minor offenses and to round them up and deport them if they happen to be illegal immigrants. They also learn to be careful around members of local gangs and drug dealers.
Since official jobs in the neighborhood are scarce, they seek informal, cash-based employment, contributing to an underground economy. Seeking safety in numbers, they self-organize along racial and ethnic lines, and, to promote their common interests, form ethnic mafias that strive to dominate one or more forms of illegal or semi-legal activity.
Growing up in a dangerous, violent environment, their children become tough at a young age, and, those that survive, develop excellent situational awareness that allows them to steer clear of dangerous situations and to know when to resort to violence.
When the fossil fuel-based national economy shuts down due to the increasingly well understood local ramifications of the global phenomenon of Peak Oil, both of these communities are harmed, but to different extents and in different ways.
Other countries may continue to function for another decade or even longer: these are the countries that have enough oil of their own, as well as those that were far-sighted enough to enter into long-term barter agreements with the few remaining oil producers that still have a surplus of oil for export.
But suppose that our two communities are in an English-speaking country, which is likely to be afflicted with the irrational belief that the free market can solve all problems on its own, even problems with the availability of critical supplies such as oil. Just as one would expect, the invisible hand of the market fails to make itself visible, but it is plain to see that fuel is no longer delivered to either of these communities, although in the second one some fuel is likely to still be available on the black market, at prices that very few people can afford.
Sooner or later, due to lack of supplies and maintenance at every level, electricity shuts off, water pumping stations cease to function, sewage backs up making bathrooms unusable, garbage trucks no longer collect the garbage, which piles up, breading rats, flies and cockroaches.
As sanitary conditions deteriorate, diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid reappear and spread. The medical system requires fuel for the ambulances and running water, electricity and oil-based pharmaceuticals and disposable supplies for the hospitals and clinics to operate.
When these are no longer available, the surviving residents are left to care for each other as best they can and, when they fail, to bury their own dead. Along with the other municipal and government services, police departments cease to function. Particularly important installations are guarded by soldiers or by private security, while the population is left to fend for itself.
The effect on the two communities is markedly different... In Full @ ClubOrlov
Friday, July 16, 2010
A Public Service Announcement From Auntie Imperial - America's Lifestyle Is Suicidal
Friday, April 16, 2010
Untenable Lifestyle Alert, Part 2: "Your Gonna Have To Kill Someone For Your 'NIMBY' "Green"[tm] Lifestyle", Redux
United Press International >> Energy Resources
U.S. faces crisis in rare earth materials
Published: April 16, 2010
WASHINGTON, April 16 (UPI) -- Reliance on China for rare earth materials and a lack of U.S. mining capacity is creating a crisis in terms of U.S. national defense, advocates said.
The U.S. Magnet Materials Association warned that the United States is "totally dependent" on imports for rare earth materials.
Rare earth materials are used in wind turbines, hydroelectric batteries and precision-guided munitions.
China, the USMMA said, provides more than 97 percent of the word's rare earth raw materials and rebuilding domestic capacity could take more than a decade.
The USMMA said it backs the findings of a report to U.S. lawmakers that warn U.S. defense systems will continue to rely on foreign resources for rare earth materials.
The association further notes that defense contractors should limit their dependence while addressing the lack of effective substitutes.
"USMMA believes that urgent and collective action is needed by the federal government in order to head off the impending rare earth crisis," the association said. In Full
Reference douments:
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Your Gonna Have To Kill Someone For Your 'NIMBY' "Green"[tm] Lifestyle
War in South America anyone? OK then... War on China...
A slideshow explaing where we are now, and some possible outcomes of our decisions in the here and now:
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Our Future and the End of the Oil Age: Building Resilience in a Resource-Constrained World - Dimitry Orlov
(For a primer on the underlying hypothesis see: Closing the 'Collapse Gap' by Dimitry Orlov)
...and of course, Americans die in unsafe mines and power generation facilities as well, now more than ever as the ability to provide energy on the grid exceeds the available refining and generation facilities capacities and workers have to work harder and faster than ever (as the company prospers), in increasingly unsafe facilities... while the US government looks the other way... until tragedy strikes.
Here's a look at the environmental results of coal mining in the US.
Remember, we are committing murder, often by proxy along with these environmental and ecological tragedies... destroying agricultural resources, throughout the world while denying culpability for all the hate bred by our compulsive resource consumption to provide ourselves with those so-called "necessities of modern life".
This is what we do to our own country... Imagine the holocausts we create in the third world:
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Mountaintop Mining - There Are Now 470 Missing Appalachian Mountain Peaks (You won't miss them will you?)
"The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses." --U. Utah Phillips, folksinger and old Wob.
Chase Bank is ONE name with addresses throughout America. They ought to be *easy* to find.
Auntie Imp suggest you 'look them up'
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Visitors To Auntie Imperial's News & Blog Review
Thanks For Stopping By
Posts
Auntie Imperial Says:
