Dmitry Orlov: Peak Oil Lessons From The Soviet Union

Dmitry Orlov, engineer and author, warns that the US's reliance on diminishing fuel supplies might be sending it down the same path the Soviet Union took before it collapsed.

In this fifth video in the series "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate" from The Nation and On The Earth Productions, Orlov, who was an eyewitness to the collapse of the Soviet Union, asserts that run-away debt and national bankruptcy will lead the US to its demise, just as it did for Moscow. As oil becomes more expensive and scarcer, the US will no longer be able to finance its importation and the economy will hit a wall, he says.

"Sixty percent of all of our transportation fuels are imported—a lot of that is on credit. A large chunk of the trade deficit is actually in transportation fuels. When those stop arriving because of our inability to borrow more money, then the economy is at a standstill," he says.

Visit www.thenation.com to learn more about "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate," and to see the other videos in the series.

Category:

News & Politics

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• Dmitry Orlov
• Peak Oil
• The Nation
• On The Earth Productions
• Soviet Union
• Transportation

[Catherinearmant]

Dmitry Orlov has awareness and speaks truth.

[Stairmaster9068]

we're fucked

[leonardphill25]

This is one "blushing" video. =p

[kervennic]

I think there is a chance that Orlov is pessimist about the number of people that can survive at least in a frst time. Especially those who gets knowledge about survival and craft skills right now.

The agro industry is not the most intensive way of producing food but the more profitable because it saves labor. Small farming is able to sustain more and the agro system mainly produces waste and pollution. Besides wild resource are badly exploited, as industrial fishing shows it (waste + damage).

[gordoncraig410]

Your video is a favorite on Massachusetts

[HisEmptyHouse]

It may take a collapse before people are able to totally restructure the system from the ground up. The corruption in our current system is too endemic.

[MrWoobagooba]

and no amount of flagwaving, military interventionism, opening fortune cookies (while restaurants stay open), or other forms of wishful thinking/denial can prevent the US from deindustrializing. Solar and other "green" technology, while a noble ideal, will not step in and save you. Even if they had a clue as to how to replace fossil fuels, it would take decades to be up and running, Dmitry encourages us to be more patient and share responsibilities. Heed his advice or else suffer the consequence

[MrWoobagooba]

Dmitry has no agenda, his family escaped persecution in the former USSR and so he has no reason to stick up for the former USSR. If anyone bothers to read or hear what he is saying with an open mind, they woukld be grateful. We are an oil driven economy. Dmitry is an engineer and a leading peak oil expert. Figures don't lie (peak oil), but liars do figure (spokesassholes from the oil industry as well as politicians and the media). There will NOT always be more oil, technology will not save us

[MrWoobagooba]

Downer? Yes, but nevertheless, true. It boils down to whether you value knowing the truth vs staying in a litter box of denial and making yourself feel good inside. If you can grasp your ears firmly and pull your head out of your ass, you just may be able to drop your denial and other defense mechanisms and see that this man is telling you the stark, naked truth. The Russians crushed the Nazis. They are used to hardship. We are spoiled and not at all prepared for fossil fuel depletion

[MEpianist]

Ummm downer!

[123BDG123]

And doing so rather unproductively. Many Americans are much more self-reliant than any Soviet. Those living in rural America produce their own food and rely on bartering for much of their economic success. There is a massive underground economy in the US that Orlov obviously knows nothing about. If the US dollar went to near zero, similar to what happened in Iceland, we still have economic means of production to survive. It would just be a karmic event for those who are rich "on paper"