The Buffalo

First there are some truths we need to review:

One: the United States does not have a nationalized oil industry. Private, multi-national companies explore for oil, drill or mine it, refine it and sell it on the global market. Our "strategic reserve" the government bought, just like you buy gas when you fill up your tank. The United States is a capitalist economy, private enterprise owns the oil, coal, etc.

Two: Peak Oil is not make believe. There are finite oil, coal and gas resources on the earth. Unfound resources may exist, but are beyond our means to mine.

For example, there may be tar sands and shale, but it requires millions of gallons of water to extract, and there is no water.

Or, tar sand and shale, may exist, but contains chemical molecules that would destroy an engine if refined.

The oil companies have known this for decades!

Three: The days of cheap crude oil are long gone. Now, all oil, and natural gas for that matter, has large production costs. This will drive up the retail price forever. Cheap energy is gone forever.

Four: Peak Oil means we are running out of all reserves, we have been on the downhill side of reserves for oil in the United States since 1972. We are now on the downhill side of worldwide reserves since 2005.

Five: Tying our economies to the idea of forever oil is simple madness. We have found all we are going to find. There is no more.

Six: Ruining the environment in a desperate attempt to get every last drop, will not matter given one through four above. Look, once you use it, it is gone. It took millions of years for nature to produce crude oil and natural gas. We are an advanced, technologically driven culture, that has over the last 150 years explored every square inch of planet, on ground and in the sea, looking for precious oil. We have found and used most if not all of it; right now we are on the downhill side of a bell shaped curve of oil use. The bonanza of "environmentalist protected" oil is a pittance, a couple days of gas.

To use that as an excuse to not conserve, or adapt is simple madness!

In the latter part of the 19th century, the United States Army was having a tough time ridding the Plains of the Native Americans. This culminated with the Custer massacre. In short, the expansion west was in trouble. The Army then came up with a plan, to indirectly annihilate the Native Americans; kill all the buffalo. So, hunters were hired, protected by troops, and the great buffalo herds were exterminated. The warriors went hungry, the tribes dwindled, and the west was won.

Supply and demands wins everytime.

Today, we are faced with the same challenge. The United States especially, has a car driven economy. We are bound to the automobile for our very existence. And our buffalo is crude oil. And, whoever the Army is, has figured out we are running out of it fast. I think God is in there somewhere.

The Native Americans could not adapt, and they lost big time. We, it appears are also refusing to adapt, listening to those who lie to us and tell us the "greenies" are blocking endless reservoirs of oil. Or, the Democrats are keeping us from oil that would fix everything. It's the President's fault?! Right!

Guess what? Peak oil predictdions took into account all known reserves, including tar sands, shale, and protected resources. That is right, all of it.

In fact, after 1972 predictions for the run out of oil reserves actually were more optimistic than warranted. In short, it is becoming worse sooner than expected.

And what do we do? Why we drive faster! We deny and deny and deny!

And what do we do? We conserve less.

We knew all this in 1972. President Reagan knew this in 1984, when he vetoed the 65 mile per hour speed limit, subverted the MPG standards, and in 1980 when he tore the solar panels off the White House. Conservatives have attained superiority politically by lying about Peak Oil, and pandering to an American public who simply refuses to acknowledge common sense!

Conservatives for cheap political reasons, have tied our "liberty" to our need to get oil anywhere, no matter what the cost. What they are not telling you, is it doesn't make any differrence.

Do you really think, that with a capitalist run energy system, based on profits that right now are huge, that the oil industry is really staying out of vast reserves, or not refining because of environmentalist power? Come on, we are talking the good old American values of greed, that clear cut our forests, that placer mined Northern California so severely that the entire watershed was destroyed. Do you really believe that environmentalists have been so successful that they have kept oil exploration at bay?

That is what they want you to believe, so you will not conserve, and their profits will soar.

Will this work to expand supply?

Of course not. Oil exploration has been going full tilt for decades; expecially since 1972. And, we are not alone. As China, Brazil, India and others "develop" further they are emulating the United States consumer culture, and also are tying their economies to the assumption that oil will last forever. Every country on earth has been desperately looking for oil for the past 50 years.

And, every reputable scientific study shows that oil running out. Every single one.

Add to that the little nuisance of fossil fuel driving global warming, and you have a catastrophe facing our civilization just like the one the Plains Indians faced in 1780.

"The Buffalo are gone, the children are starving, I will not fight anymore", Chief Joseph.

Our children will starve, our culture will collapse, unless we wake up and start shifting right now from our total reliance on fossil fuels.

Those are truths based on the common sense that our buffalo are disappearing with every tank of gas we burn.

It's a matter of common sense.