Il_Mostro
11-28-2004, 05:53 PM
Below is a list of articles I consider essential reading for everyone. They should be enough to get any thinking person to at get worried enough to want to look more into the state of the world and form his/her own opinion.
I’ll let the articles stand for them selves, read them if you want. I certainly think everyone should.
A couple pointers, though. The article on Eating fossil fuels is non-political (mostly at least) and extremely important. The first Stan Goff article is political, but very interesting.
Oil depletion:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8853FFB5-3368-44D1-82AE-4066D9FCEA09.htm
[ QUOTE ]
As global oil demand increases and oil wells deplete, will oil producers' much trumpeted new fields be able to cope?
[/ QUOTE ]
http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/02/markets/peak_oil/
[ QUOTE ]
The end of cheap oil may mean more than just higher gas prices for Americans. It may mean the end of the oil age as we know it.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/Downloads/pos.pdf
[ QUOTE ]
There is increasing evidence that Oil will reach a production peak in the next few
years rather than in 10’s of years as has been indicated by oil companies and
politicians. If this happens, it will have an enormous impact on the world economy.
This note summarises information gleaned from a number of sources. It is not
intended to be definitive – but rather to bring the issue to individuals’ attention and to
indicate further potential reading. I have attempted to make the subject as relevant as
possible to people without a background in oil or energy.
[/ QUOTE ]
A decent peak-oil primer, not definitive, but a good starting point.
Alternative energy:
http://www.hubbertpeak.com/youngquist/altenergy.htm
[ QUOTE ]
We here briefly examine alternative energy sources as to their advantages, limitations, and their prospects for replacing oil in the ways and great volumes in which we use oil today. Alternative energies closest to conventional oil (from wells) are first considered, and then our energy horizons are expanded.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-57/iss-7/p47.html
[ QUOTE ]
Population growth and energy demand are exhausting the world's fossil energy supplies, some on the timescale of a single human lifespan. Increasingly, sharing natural resources will require close international cooperation, peace, and security.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://smalley.rice.edu/
[ QUOTE ]
Richard E. Smalley University Professor, Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics & Astronomy, 1996 Nobel Prize Winner.
[/ QUOTE ]
This one is a bit different. The main interest here is the video of the lecture Dr Smalley held. Long, but in Wackis words “I honestly think that 1.5 hour video is the most important video in existance today.” I agree.
Narcotics and money:
http://solari.com/articles/scoop_narco_dummies.htm
[ QUOTE ]
Here is what I have learned that has been useful to me---- and may help you have a better map of how narco dollars impact you, your business, your family and the Solari Index in your neighborhood.
[/ QUOTE ]
Environment:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/10/06/no-longer-obeying-orders/
[ QUOTE ]
I would like to begin by discussing the context in which all journalists operate.
If we concentrate, for the moment, on the mainstream media, there is a very limited number of outlets that I would broadly describe as “free”. By free I don’t mean that the product is given away. I mean that it is free from the direct influence of private proprietors. I will give you a couple of examples from my own country.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/08/10/goodbye-kind-world-/
[ QUOTE ]
“We live”, the Spectator’s cover story tells us this week, “in the happiest, healthiest and most peaceful era in human history.”(1)
…
But the party is over. In 2000 words, the Spectator provides plenty of evidence to support its first contention: “Now is good”. It provides none to support its second: “The future will be better.” Ours are the most fortunate generations that have ever lived. They are also the most fortunate generations that ever will.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100303_eating_oil.html
[ QUOTE ]
In their refined study, Giampietro and Pimentel found that 10 kcal of exosomatic energy are required to produce 1 kcal of food delivered to the consumer in the U.S. food system. This includes packaging and all delivery expenses, but excludes household cooking).20 The U.S. food system consumes ten times more energy than it produces in food energy. This disparity is made possible by nonrenewable fossil fuel stocks.
[/ QUOTE ]
Stan Goff:
I find his writing to be very clear and very informative. Open your mind and read.
http://counterpunch.org/goff08132004.html
If you are only going to read one article this year, here it is. If essentialism is graded, this one is one the top.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/092004_persian_peril2.shtml
[ QUOTE ]
This is the second installment of Stan Goff's report on the simmering Persian Peril. Where Part One set out a history of modern Iran in its relations with Western imperial powers, the current piece explains the petrodollar system that underlies our ugly situation in the Middle East and the world. As Catherine Austin Fitts says, nothing will really change until we change the way money works. "Petrodollar," "fiat currency," "speculative attack," "balance of trade" --- these are the lexicographical little friends whom we need by our sides if we are to make it out of the propaganda labyrinth. Goff's essay explains just why the world puts up with the American bully. It isn't just the horrible weapons of death; it's the horrible weapon of debt: in this ongoing American dream, "we" do the borrowing - and everyone else does the owing.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/102804_todays_imperialism.shtml
[ QUOTE ]
As this article goes to press in the new issue of FTW's print newsletter, we learn that India has just decided to sell $120 billion of its US Treasury reserves: "In addition," writes Edward Luce in the Financial Times, "India's record foreign exchange reserves represent a large "opportunity cost", [Indian officials] say, since most of the money is invested in low-yielding US Treasury bonds. 'We are subsidizing the American economy,' said one official. 'These are scarce resources that can be put to better use.'"2 And there's more news like that. China has just raised interest rates for the first time in 9 years, so American suppliers of China's vast appetite for raw materials are seeing their stocks bounce down. There's a big difference between China's rising interest rates and ours: they're trying to rein in their runaway growth, while we just want to slow the inflation of our empty economic balloon.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/111504_privilege_debt.shtml
[ QUOTE ]
The stark fact is, there is no easy way out of the predicament we are in, and there will be no solutions forthcoming from the system that put us there. A doctor does not tell a patient who needs an amputation to prevent dying of gangrene, "We can wait a few days, and surely things will get better."
[/ QUOTE ]
I’ll let the articles stand for them selves, read them if you want. I certainly think everyone should.
A couple pointers, though. The article on Eating fossil fuels is non-political (mostly at least) and extremely important. The first Stan Goff article is political, but very interesting.
Oil depletion:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/8853FFB5-3368-44D1-82AE-4066D9FCEA09.htm
[ QUOTE ]
As global oil demand increases and oil wells deplete, will oil producers' much trumpeted new fields be able to cope?
[/ QUOTE ]
http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/02/markets/peak_oil/
[ QUOTE ]
The end of cheap oil may mean more than just higher gas prices for Americans. It may mean the end of the oil age as we know it.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/Downloads/pos.pdf
[ QUOTE ]
There is increasing evidence that Oil will reach a production peak in the next few
years rather than in 10’s of years as has been indicated by oil companies and
politicians. If this happens, it will have an enormous impact on the world economy.
This note summarises information gleaned from a number of sources. It is not
intended to be definitive – but rather to bring the issue to individuals’ attention and to
indicate further potential reading. I have attempted to make the subject as relevant as
possible to people without a background in oil or energy.
[/ QUOTE ]
A decent peak-oil primer, not definitive, but a good starting point.
Alternative energy:
http://www.hubbertpeak.com/youngquist/altenergy.htm
[ QUOTE ]
We here briefly examine alternative energy sources as to their advantages, limitations, and their prospects for replacing oil in the ways and great volumes in which we use oil today. Alternative energies closest to conventional oil (from wells) are first considered, and then our energy horizons are expanded.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-57/iss-7/p47.html
[ QUOTE ]
Population growth and energy demand are exhausting the world's fossil energy supplies, some on the timescale of a single human lifespan. Increasingly, sharing natural resources will require close international cooperation, peace, and security.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://smalley.rice.edu/
[ QUOTE ]
Richard E. Smalley University Professor, Gene and Norman Hackerman Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics & Astronomy, 1996 Nobel Prize Winner.
[/ QUOTE ]
This one is a bit different. The main interest here is the video of the lecture Dr Smalley held. Long, but in Wackis words “I honestly think that 1.5 hour video is the most important video in existance today.” I agree.
Narcotics and money:
http://solari.com/articles/scoop_narco_dummies.htm
[ QUOTE ]
Here is what I have learned that has been useful to me---- and may help you have a better map of how narco dollars impact you, your business, your family and the Solari Index in your neighborhood.
[/ QUOTE ]
Environment:
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/10/06/no-longer-obeying-orders/
[ QUOTE ]
I would like to begin by discussing the context in which all journalists operate.
If we concentrate, for the moment, on the mainstream media, there is a very limited number of outlets that I would broadly describe as “free”. By free I don’t mean that the product is given away. I mean that it is free from the direct influence of private proprietors. I will give you a couple of examples from my own country.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2004/08/10/goodbye-kind-world-/
[ QUOTE ]
“We live”, the Spectator’s cover story tells us this week, “in the happiest, healthiest and most peaceful era in human history.”(1)
…
But the party is over. In 2000 words, the Spectator provides plenty of evidence to support its first contention: “Now is good”. It provides none to support its second: “The future will be better.” Ours are the most fortunate generations that have ever lived. They are also the most fortunate generations that ever will.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100303_eating_oil.html
[ QUOTE ]
In their refined study, Giampietro and Pimentel found that 10 kcal of exosomatic energy are required to produce 1 kcal of food delivered to the consumer in the U.S. food system. This includes packaging and all delivery expenses, but excludes household cooking).20 The U.S. food system consumes ten times more energy than it produces in food energy. This disparity is made possible by nonrenewable fossil fuel stocks.
[/ QUOTE ]
Stan Goff:
I find his writing to be very clear and very informative. Open your mind and read.
http://counterpunch.org/goff08132004.html
If you are only going to read one article this year, here it is. If essentialism is graded, this one is one the top.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/092004_persian_peril2.shtml
[ QUOTE ]
This is the second installment of Stan Goff's report on the simmering Persian Peril. Where Part One set out a history of modern Iran in its relations with Western imperial powers, the current piece explains the petrodollar system that underlies our ugly situation in the Middle East and the world. As Catherine Austin Fitts says, nothing will really change until we change the way money works. "Petrodollar," "fiat currency," "speculative attack," "balance of trade" --- these are the lexicographical little friends whom we need by our sides if we are to make it out of the propaganda labyrinth. Goff's essay explains just why the world puts up with the American bully. It isn't just the horrible weapons of death; it's the horrible weapon of debt: in this ongoing American dream, "we" do the borrowing - and everyone else does the owing.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/102804_todays_imperialism.shtml
[ QUOTE ]
As this article goes to press in the new issue of FTW's print newsletter, we learn that India has just decided to sell $120 billion of its US Treasury reserves: "In addition," writes Edward Luce in the Financial Times, "India's record foreign exchange reserves represent a large "opportunity cost", [Indian officials] say, since most of the money is invested in low-yielding US Treasury bonds. 'We are subsidizing the American economy,' said one official. 'These are scarce resources that can be put to better use.'"2 And there's more news like that. China has just raised interest rates for the first time in 9 years, so American suppliers of China's vast appetite for raw materials are seeing their stocks bounce down. There's a big difference between China's rising interest rates and ours: they're trying to rein in their runaway growth, while we just want to slow the inflation of our empty economic balloon.
[/ QUOTE ]
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/111504_privilege_debt.shtml
[ QUOTE ]
The stark fact is, there is no easy way out of the predicament we are in, and there will be no solutions forthcoming from the system that put us there. A doctor does not tell a patient who needs an amputation to prevent dying of gangrene, "We can wait a few days, and surely things will get better."
[/ QUOTE ]