By repreinting this, I mean not to de-emphasize the unfolding human tragedy in the American South. Nor do I wish to under-emphasize what appears to be the scandalous, collosal failure of political will to support efforts to rescue victims of the tragedy. I hope, however, that this essay puts the event and scale of tragedy into something of a historical and environmental context.
Good news and bad news at the dawn of petrocollapse
Written by Jan Lundberg
There is good news and bad news at the dawn of petrocollapse:
To the rescue!
- Bike stations and Library Bikes as victors over oil!
However...
- Inevitable: New Orleans as victim of oill
There is more than a double whammy at play in the U.S. Gulf as to the energy supply picture. Besides the devastation of the general infrastructure, Katrina has inflicted two accute shortage situations as never before experienced simultaneously: oil (and refined products), and natural gas.
Gas was already in very tight supply, as has been oil. Today's sudden and heightened supply tightness can feed on itself, as history has shown. To say the least, this country is going to have a recession that could be rather dark by winter.
A national and global economy that is not built for conservation and efficiency cannot accept "Stop! no more" from Mother Nature. Hence, the possible onset of general petrocollapse and the toll on consumers, even though for now consumerism still rides high everywhere in the U.S. except in the areas directly disabled by Katrina. But according to airportbusiness.com,
"Airlines and oil companies are working on plans to supply jet fuel to at least ten U.S. airports that could be shut down due to a lack of jet fuel caused by refinery and pipeline shutdowns from hurricane Katrina." The report from Aug. 31st makes clear these are not Gulf area airports hit by Katrina, and they include Atlanta and Washington Dulles.
"This may be the biggest oil-supply shock since the 1970s. We are now in the days of reckoning,'' said Cambridge Energy Research's Daniel Yergin after Katrina hit the petroleum sector. As a reader of the Lundberg Letter in the late 1970s, Yergin knows that our forecast of a 9% shortfall of gasoline in 1979 -- that we accurately predicted would trigger "days of lines and hoses" -- can apply today.
Read more: http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=24&Itemid=2
