Oil does more than run our cars. Oil runs our cities, oil produces our food, oil fuels our flights and hence industries of tourism, and oil powers the weapons of war.
Oil = Power.
And as demand increases, supply is peaking… hence the “war on terror” – efforts to secure oil distribution for ourselves.
What will happen after the peak? Oil supplies will slowly decrease. Demand for oil will continue to increase, prices for oil will rise, and prices for everything else will hence rise too. The economy will slow. The economy is base on confidence that the economy is going to keep growing. If the economy is not expected to keep growing, which it can’t if oil supplies decrease, people stop borrowing, and money starts to disappear from the economy. This means there is not enough money to pay back loans with interest. And… collapse.
Do politicians know? Of course – they have the best briefs from the best sources. They know. But what can they do? They’re not going to talk about it until they have a solution.
An interesting doco “Oil, Smoke and Mirrors”:
[googlevideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8677389869548020370#[/googlevideo]
Photo credits:
Photographer: Romeo Devlin
I chose this shot as an interpretation of “smoke & mirrors” – that’s me touching my own neck (just thought I’d mention in case you weren’t quite sure) 🙂