James Howard Kunstler: Peak Oil and Our Financial Decline

[tomfool43]

Mr Kunstler is very right about the ability of bankrupt political/economic systems to keep going long after they have ceased to function well, We'll be looking at another US election and build up to war, like this one, in ten years time and asking ourselves, how long this can go on before someone does something? climate and peak oil are not subject to the same rules however, they'll come when they are ready.

[Kyllei]

Loved the points about the environmentalists missing the point about energy! Absolutely accurate!

[Nater245689]

Seeds, land, tools, guns, ammo and medicines. That's what you want. The ability to grow your own food and the means to protect it from those who lack the ability. I know most of the people talking about Peak Oil are died in the wool liberals and don't like guns, but they'll be more necessary than ever if the worst comes to pass.

[Afearthenrut]

@Nater245689 If we go about it your way, our future is another Dark Ages, think about it.

[Nater245689]

@Afearthenrut My way is merely being prepared for the worst. It has no impact on how the future goes down. But it does appear that the human race has squandered a lot of the fossil energy available without developing the two or three technologies that can be really considered successors. Fission (developed, but the small minded are terrified of it), fusion (always 30 years away), and orbital solar (further away than fusion).

[Afearthenrut]

@Nater245689 I am in no way prepared for the worst and have been under this stark realization for some time. I am playing the ultimate gambling game right now going to college (debt), moving in my families first home (debt), home infrastructure setup to create some power (debt), drip irrigated regenerative crop planting (debt), and a new roof (debt)... My master plan it to attempt to get a position directly with the city as their Enterprise Architect in order to lay the way with the tech neede

[summondadrummin]

Money is information.Tokens and Symbols~ made up by banks. Oil is not. Virtual wealth and Real Wealth.

[oldickeastman]

The debt crisis is NOT caused by us borrowing when oil was thought plentiful and then becoming unsustainable because of peak oil. You know a man by the lies he weaves together. DEBT IS CAUSED BY NET INTEREST DRAIN TO FINANCE DUE TO PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST LEAK ALWAYS BIGGER THAN LOAN INFLOW AND THE FACT THAT LOAN DEBT IS OUR MONEY.  Rothschild expands and contracts money, but every boom is hollowed out by net interest drain. Peak Oil is a lie to cover monopoly. see p_wv4NTNrxU -paste to above

[oldickeastman]

The debt crisis is NOT caused by us borrowing when oil was thought plentiful and then becoming unsustainable because of peak oil. You know a man by the lies he weaves together. DEBT IS CAUSED BY NET INTEREST DRAIN TO FINANCE DUE TO PRINCIPAL AND INTEREST LEAK ALWAYS BIGGER THAN LOAN INFLOW AND THE FACT THAT LOAN DEBT IS OUR MONEY. Rothschild expands and contracts money, but every boom is hollowed out by net interest drain. Peak Oil is a lie to cover monopoly. see p_wv4NTNrxU

[SuperDickweed]

A big stool. A clogged toilet. A fat maid and a sketchy looking butler.

A big stool doesn't always mean a clogged toilet.

Palin Bachmann 2012

[manco82]

JHK is a modern day Jeremiah.

[theShice]

@qwizzer78 one person is a common shit beetle.

[GSfreebooks]

Great work. Thanks!! JHK you the man.

[jpd1235]

@qwizzer78 If the president was to acknowledge this it could cause bigger problems and panic. He has a responsibility to deal with the problem without ever acknowledging it.

[1981busch]

@PolaDinara Thank you, I have said that so many times, denial, the whole worlds in denial.

[1981busch]

Peak oil, well lets put it this way. Peak Oil adds another large factor to the Drake Equation, one that earth, coincidentally, does not likely meet.

[HorseCents]

Cuntslinger is a socialist tool. There is at least 200 years of oil under Gull Island Alaska, and possibly 50 times that. Oil is an actively created resource and is not finite.

See my video series for the RealTruth(tm) of the matter.

[raptorkiller2k5]

@HorseCents. No one is saying oil is going to run out. No one has said that. Instead oil production will be leveling off, even if new fields in Africa, Central Asia, Iraq, Alaska, et al are included, and that'll make it difficult to increase economic output. The banking system is already slowing and it's pretty damn obvious that we're moving towards a future where credit and oil will be harder to get.

[BelgianBrain]

13:13 - 16:07 : a striking intellectual failure... awesome point

[vlada881]

Also federal reserve is keeping the interest rates at 0.25% in last 25 months since december 2008. Money is cheap so these trilions and trilions of dollars are pumped in the system. Theres no recovery. They r buying time for a couple of years. You cant print energy!! The money bomb is gonna explode and when that happens people will see the consequences of peak oil. From that time nothing is gonna be the same. In very short period of time the system is going to collapse like it never existed.

[vlada881]

There is no substitute for oil and gas to sustain world economy and curent civilization. First of all our infrastructure has been built on oil and anything you see all around you is created by oil (rubber, plastics, tires, cosmetics, food, glue, asfalt, paint) and its used for all industrial process like heating materials and etc. 98% of transportation and agriculture is based on oil. How about air industry. Theres no cure for the person who dont belive is sick.

[KrunchyJD]

On the subject of peak oil, I am three things. A Realist, an optimist and a pessimist.

Let me explain. I am a realist= I believe oil is a finite substance, and either has peaked or is close to peaking.

An optimist, in that I believe that if we are smart, we can still have growth, the dollar is a fiat currency, and is soverign, we can do things like create walkable bikable communities.

A pessimist, because, I believe those in charge are ignorant and dumb, and will not act until it is to late.

[danfromabove]

@KrunchyJD "we can still have growth" Do not pass go. Do not collect £200. Peak oil means end the of our exponential growth, the one begets the other.

[KrunchyJD]

@danfromabove I dont agree. Creating walkable, bikable communities, growing food closer, etc will allow a high standard of living while reducing oil consumption. Case in Point, Denmark, Copenhagen is a walkable bikable city and in fact around 37% of trips are by bike, they use less oil per person, but have a higher standard of living then the US.

Sure, I dont think the USA, or where i'm from Australia, will do this because we are idiots, but it can be done.

[danfromabove]

@KrunchyJD I totally agree that that is the best model moving forward (I've been to Copenhagen and it's a beautiful city.) However, reducing oil consumption (per person or total) means relying more on the energy income of sunlight through whatever tech or biological means. You sound pretty tuned in but you must recognise that these steps (reducing reliance upon globalised systems) come into direct conflict with the demands of the growth paradigm. In other words, growth is the problem.

[archivesDave]

Good comments Jim...

Re 'conspiracies' tho, you have to acknowledge some have and do exist in one form or fashion, be they those who killed Julius Caesar, Jesus Christ, or Hitler burning down the Reich-stag, The sinking of the Maine, Gulf of Ton-kin, etc etc.

archivesDave

[TIKIMAN198]

This man is pretty smart, however he needs to lose the porn star mustache.

[dink65]

@TIKIMAN198 - Yeah, and the idiot earring in his left ear. What man his age wears an earring? Even Harrison Ford looks like a complete fool with a pierced ear.

I also don't understand why he gives a damn about Detroit, when the entire country will look like Detroit soon.....

[tlfettled]

I believe i heard this speech back in the 70's

[hurin11000]

@tlfettled In 1970 oil production peaked in the US, just as Hubbard had foretold. Now global oil production has peaked.

[TheProphetNabob]

The peak oil public relations fiasco is dominated by failed novelists, 911 conspiracy theorists, and agrarian neo-pagan cultists.

What does that tell you?

[hurin11000]

@TheProphetNabob Nothing, oil is finite, extraction will peak and dwindle to nothing, as the economy depends on it it will contract as oil runs out.

This is fact, not liking the messenger changes nothing.

[TheProphetNabob]

@hurin11000 The point is that the messenger has discredited the message. Kunstler is an anti-working-class elitist and a "prophet" whose "prophecies" have failed to come true for ten years now.

[hurin11000]

@TheProphetNabob 'the messenger has discredited the message' Your statement does not even begin to make sense. Peak Oil is physical reality, discrediting Kunstler will not bring more oil into existence.

Peak oil is in the past, the economy is not growing anymore, this is what is causing the current disintegration of the monetary system as a fiat currency system must either grow or collapse, because without growth there is nothing to pay interest on debt.

[petrocalypsenow]

@hurin11000 Don't waste your keystrokes on this guy. He's a troll (just look at his home page). I blocked him a long time ago.

[MrTadblack]

@TheProphetNabob Nothing.  Make the math work otherwise.

[jimbobubbadj]

I disagree about the reporters. They are told not to report anything offensive against their advertisers which are mainly the banks and car dealers. Also they can't report anything discouraging consumption. Everything must be made out to be rosy.

[schoolake]

JHK and many others have been telling us this is happening for quite awhile and the funny thing is 'that it IS happening right now' all around us.

You might want to look at what is happening in the world beyond our borders.

We are definitely living in Interesting times, enjoy.

[TheProphetNabob]

@schoolake So when is "Dow 4,000 supposed to happen?" Back in 2008 when he "predicted" it?

When are people in the suburbs going to be "growing kale on their front lawns"?

When are pirates going to be the scourge of the Pacific Northwest?

When are peak oil dogmatists going to get a life?

[Cyrus992]

@TheProphetNabob

The Dow has dropped a lot since 2008.. It has fallen 4000 in terms of "real money and gold." Look up the real facts

[Cyrus992]

@TheProphetNabob

Yes, it has been rising due to the major banking speculating at 0% interest rates and inflation. Not because the markets are actually getting better.

[MidBosque]

So, those curious about "the science, engineering, and economics" can check search "the oil drum" and read all about it.

[TheProphetNabob]

He has been saying the same thing over and over for about a decade.

He has been saying the Dow will drop to 4,000, over and over again.

He said 8 years ago that suburbia would be "abandoned."

No matter how many times chumps like Kunstler deliver their crackpot sermons, the peak oil converts fall for it.

Over and over again.

[speculawyer]

Ugh.  This guy with a training in theater is a terrible representative for the peak oil story. He is good at drama but not good at the science, engineering, and economics that are at the heart of the probelm.