PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
by Michael C. Ruppert
It is now only a matter of weeks before the truth about Peak Oil comes crashing through the mass media, the public consciousness and the imagined realities of life. In July we will see that OPEC (especially Saudi Arabia) cannot increase production. The long unconnected dots will become clear lines depicting a now inevitable collapse and die-off. The once impenetrable edifice of the old paradigm which locked our warnings away and blocked them from real public discussion will rupture. Peak Oil is certain to become an issue in the U.S.general election this November.
Two events are about to take place, and indeed have already begun. The Peak Oil movement, those of us who labored and sacrificed for years,have our collective pants tied round our ankles and our heads inserted deeply into non-energy-producing regions. The first event is easy to address if we focus. The second, however, may literally render what"was" the real Peak Oil movement ineffective and condemn hundreds of thousands, if not millions, to death. Because what people hear and learn in the first months of true Peak Oil awareness will determine the course of discussion, planning and of history, from here to eternity.
Problem 1:
Within weeks or months the major media will become "aware" of Peak Oil. They will come to the Peak Oil movement and say, "OK, what do we do now? What should a President do? What should congress do? What should people do? I have seen no serious or focused attempt to prepare for this demand. I am tinkering with a proposed Presidential Platform on the subject by myself and when I think I have something serious Iwill release it. The addresees of this email ONLY are encouraged to offer suggestions. [Ed: By this, Mike is referring to the recipients of his original email. Blog readers are encouraged to send suggestions to the blog. But Mike is not recommending that everyone start calling the media on their own.] But all of the people who have labored so long and sacrificed so much should be prepared for microphones to be thrust at them nationally and locally. What are you going to say?
Will you say, "It's time to go to Plan B"?...
Problem 2:
This is the most serious threat of all. Already, people who we have never heard of, and who have never sacrificed or contributed an iota, are starting to emerge saying that they have "disovered" Peak Oil. They are presenting themselves as experts. Their first approaches will be to local and regional media outlets who don't know their derrieres from a dry hole in the ground. The local and regional medias will be the ones funneling discussions and questions upward to the Larry Kings of this world. This is just the beginning of a deluge. More than half of those who will wind up on CNN, Fox, ABC and on the pages of our newspapers will be either one of two things: rank opportunists and snake oil salesmen who will distort and peddle bad ideas and self-promotion; or they will be out-and-out disinformation artists funded either by Wall Street or the US government. They will be intent on lining their own pockets, protecting the old paradigm and blunting a truth which has begun its demand for payment before foreclosure. These people will be murderers of the worst sort. Yet they will be flooding media switchboards, email inboxes and fax machines at media outlets around the country. And because they will be making noise they will get the air time that the real activists who have spoken truth will not.
How do I know this?
POWs, Iran-Contra, CIA drug trafficking, the 1992 presidential campaign and 9-11. It happened in every one of those "earth shattering" crises or events. I was there. I watched and felt it happen in every one of those sagas as it unfolded.
People who we have never heard of will be getting the spotlight and the Peak Oil movement will not -- because it gave up at just the wrong moment. The struggle to define Peak and what it means for mankind is just beginning. Are you willing to sit back and watch the snake oil salesmen, dilettantes, and wolves in sheeps clothing dictate the discussion and set the agenda, just when the window and demand for real education opens wide and beckons?
Michael C. Ruppert
Author: "Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire atthe End of the Age of Oil"
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31 comments:
Mike, my hero, we should meet for coffee/tea down here in the jungle (los angeles). Then we could corroborate an effective proposal...
I have been talking about peak oil for a long time here. At first few people listened. People couldn't, or didn't want to, believe that this life of luxury would end. And indeed, the media here in Japan still tell us that the space age is going to get better and better. But now the locals are starting to listen to me. Just yesterday another person said to me, "You were right! We're in some deep s**t!" So if and when microphones are thrust in my face, I am ready.
Michael,
Greetings from New Zealand and thanxx for all your sweat over the years. You deserve a knighthood a VC and Bar and probably a restful holiday in a quiet place.
Paul Marcroft
To FTW,
Time is short, as is money!
You need a link, possably in the
black space on the left on the Blog
page, for donations or Volunteers.
I went to your old site, & the donation link would not work for me.
long time reader, but was not able
to donade, as your system crashed
with my subscription & donation
check- history!!
To FTW,
Second try!
Time is short, & money also!
You need a link, possably in the blank space on the left of your Blog page, for donations & volunteers.
I went to your old site but the link
for donations would not work for me.
A long time reader, but unable to
donate because your old system crashed with my check to subscribe and donate- history!!
What we can do?
Probably ALL.
All we can do, all together and at the fastest speed we can.
Al the pratices, i mean, that we KNOW are right, going in the right direction. And, yes, we have the task to inform people correctly most of all making them understand that there is no thing like a silver bullet for the multicrisis we r facing. Things like NO, nuclear will NOT save our donkey-asses as er simply don't' have enough uranium to run al the nuclear plants we would need and anywaywe have not enough time to build but a tiny fraction of it...etc etc we at Aspo-Italy use to say that we do't' wnat to become a dull association of historics as peak passes by and we r working for a ASPPO association where the secon P stands for POST...Association for the Study of Post Peak Oil.
we'llbetter tart with small things just to give peopele a sense of the diverse thinking we all need..things like www-eurozev.org..that is mine: A small contribute and actually i am already working on something different, something like a solar-eolic cooperative firm down here in Tuscany...
When all about them are loosing their heads.. let's find some affirmative words about the nature of human beings and their response to crisis situations, which inspires and uplifts and moves people from a place of the best possible vision we can hold.
We can imagine all kinds of scenarios, and I have been, and continue to be, willing to look at all the possibilities.
AND I know that our future will be in no small part determined by our thoughts, our words, our deeds, our actions, our hopes, our fears, our desires and our silence.
Mexico cultivates ‘backyard agriculture’
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/959eef34-4470-11dd-b151-0000779fd2ac.html
First Cuba, now Mexico. People in the rich developed countries need to learn a lesson here, before it's too late.
rice farmer,
could you send me your email address please? it doesn't come through on blogger.
i'm at jennakilt@aol.com
thx...
Tyler Havlin has left a new comment on your post "The Peak Oil Movement Is Unprepared For Its Two Bi...":
Former President Bush energy adviser says oil is running out
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article4237886.ece
Article on top military people visiting Israel recently....re Iran?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214492515999&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
I tend to think that the media may wait even longer to discuss the problem of Peak Oil publicly through the major media outlets. If they mention it they probably won't discuss the long-term dire consequences of it either. It's important from their perspective and for the people who own them to still have us spend our money like there's no tomorrow. The people who own and control the media certainly wouldn't want to do anything that would cause a panic and get us to reverse our spending habits, unless no other alternative seems to make any sense to them.
The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder
by Vincent Bugliosi:
In The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder Vincent Bugliosi presents a tight, meticulously researched legal case that puts George W. Bush on trial in an American courtroom for the murder of nearly 4,000 American soldiers fighting the war in Iraq. Bugliosi sets forth the legal architecture and incontrovertible evidence that President Bush took this nation to war in Iraq under false pretenses—a war that has not only caused the deaths of American soldiers but also over 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women, and children; cost the United States over one trillion dollars thus far with no end in sight; and alienated many American allies in the Western world. As a prosecutor who is dedicated to seeking justice, Bugliosi, in his inimitable style, delivers a non-partisan argument, free from party lines and instead based upon hard facts and pure objectivity. A searing indictment of the President and his administration, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder also outlines a legally credible pathway to holding our highest government officials accountable for their actions, thereby creating a framework for future occupants of the oval office. Vincent Bugliosi calls for the United States of America to return to the great nation it once was and can be again. He believes the first step to achieving this goal is to bring those responsible for the war in Iraq to justice.
http://www.vanguardpressbooks.com/book.php?isbn=159315481X
Frankly it has been so hard to get anyone to listen regarding PO. I have written dozens of letters to the editor, and the ones that do get published are changed to eliminate the words Peak Oil. No one really takes it seriously...I watch the talking heads on the news with the latest story about $4/gallon gas, and they cannot tell the viewers WHY! I just want to scream at them, "IT's because of PEAK OIL!!!"
But I remember something Mike said about the most important part is preparing oneself. Those not prepared mentally(especially),financially or physically will not fare well in the next few decades.
Nuclear Fusion technology is the only option to avert Malthusian catastrophe.
We should lobby all world governments to collectively invest not the mere few billion dollars currently, but as many trillions of dollars as possible, into fusion power research. The physics is essentially all set it’s now just a matter of building a) a tough-as-nails reactor and b) practical experimentation in order to make cost effective. People say its 50 years away from commercial viability. They probably said the same thing about splitting the atom before WW2. As we all know the unfolding crisis now is far greater in terms of potential human cost. I hate nuclear as much as the next guy, have never worked in any energy related company, and have no interest in promoting the technology other than for the survival of myself and those I care about. I have followed MCR's endeavours for a long time and have come to the conclusion that fusion power is the only long term solution which offers any hope of a progressive future for mankind. Lobby your government. WE MUST ACT NOW.
Chris XVX has left a new comment on your post "The Peak Oil Movement Is Unprepared For Its Two Bi...":
Food for thought?
WEATHER CHANNEL FOUNDER: 'I ask Al Gore, where's the global warming?'
John Coleman
KUSI News
Friday, June 13, 2008
View the whole article:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2031030/posts
THE GREAT TRANSITION
Our species has reached the limits of expansion and we are about to enter into a permanent decline as we end an age of plentiful energy and begin the Great Transition or the Great Collapse - dependent entirely upon the unity of our kind!
We now face changes unprecedented in human history. The time to act decisively and cooperatively to avert an apocalyptic crisis is here, now!
As tribes grew to nations and as the tyranny of distance receded with each new energy source, we finally became entirely reliant on ancient and limited stored sunlight in fossil fuels, while we selfishly destroyed the health and wealth of our planet in its rapacious use.
Like a plague specie we have consumed all that lay before us without thought for the lesser species or our own, no matter the importance of the ecology of the Earth. We will soon die of starvation for the gluttonous consumption of all that was within our reach -just as every other plague species has done - unless we return the world to sympathetic order and reduce our demands for sustenance; to do that we must share wisely that which is left and embrace the economics of decline. We have fought for our valleys, mountains and plains, and our towns, states and nations, it is time to make the final consolidation and fight for our world!
We have been separated by language, race and religion, but we are all the children of our mother Earth and we all share the same deep desire to belong to a family and a tribe, and we all care for our young as best we know how. That which separates us is of little consequence against our mutual and most possible fates.
There are two choices before us. We can turn even more against each other in an epic battle of tribes over the remaining resources, and decline rapidly to fringe-dwelling remnants - unto even total annihilation in a battle of the last civilisations standing. Or, we can unite in light of assured paucity of resources and decline slowly toward equilibrium with a shared common goal, the survival of civilisation itself!
The days of kings and queens and presidents and prime ministers are coming to a close, no matter the final ending. It is time for the voiceless to speak and the deaf to hear, our leaders must know WE WILL NOT GO INTO THE NIGHT QUIETLY!
In follow-up to that article from John Coleman, I've been thinking for some time now that global warming could just be a cover story to handle the coming ramifications of Peak Oil. Al Gore did a movie on it, and Tom Brokaw did a TV special on it, and they're both members of the Council on Foreign Relations. And the idea that we need to cut back on carbon emissions or we'll destroy ourselves and the planet could be the best cover story of all to divert our attention when people start getting really angry over Peak Oil. Sort of a "We have to come together as a planet to save ourselves" approach, which can make us feel better about the oil we'll no longer have available to us to utilize. If global warming is real then we need to handle it. But there are a lot of credible scientists out there who believed in it at first and have since changed their minds, and these people can't even get on the mainstream media outlets to give their opinions, which also makes me suspicious.
60 Minutes has done two stories on it, and in both cases they never allowed the opposing point of view to the story to be discussed, which they normally do.
When the major media begins touting it without allowing contrary opinions to be aired about it, once again this has me concerned about whether or not they're really telling us the truth.
Steve...Regarding your experience with the media editing "Peak Oil" out from all of your letters...I had a discussion a few years ago with the Editor of one of my local newspapers. I asked him when they would begin writing about Peak Oil and he told me that they couldn't...That the way the media works is that the local media outlets cannot report on a national news story until the national news people have broken it to us first. Then after this the local media are allowed to cover it. He told me I could write letters to the newspaper about Peak Oil, but that they couldn't write about Peak Oil themselves until everyone hears about it in the national news.
Please come back Mike. We need you and your fantastic analysis capabilities.
Peak Oil will certainly bring down the colossus of US-NATO western imperialism. nothing else could have. As a result, it is what we awaited. But as to how it will affect others, well that is to be determined on a case to case basis. One thing is certain for all: the "die-off" MCR speaks about. This is likely to take place "naturally" as a consequence of PO, and also be deliberately assisted by various quarters with various agendas... It is sadly inevitable, if one takes a cold hard look at the way things now are. Meanwhile, about the effects. I will state the example of Central Asia, where I am. If a visitor were to step outside our modern Soviet-built cities into the countryside, he would step into the past: most people here live the way they have been doing for centuries. The only major difference is that nowadays they are more in number. Our modern (Uzbek) ciities are unlike western ones. In the old days westerners reviled us contemptuously for being old-fashioned and for our lack of consumerism. Perhaps the English adage of "he who laughs last, laughs longest" fits our situation well, I suppose. We lack the tendency to build highrise buildings, and trams are still very much a way of life for us. We are modern, but ordinarily so - "second worlders" rather than first. A lot of our services are run as they were in Soviet times, by the state. And unlike old "Reader's Digest" propaganda, they serve us very well. Russia is not much different. President Putin is a very clever, astute man. I believe he is secretly aware of PO, and has saved Russia for the future. He has certainly saved it from the ravages of globalism and has curbed the power of the robber plutocracy America foisted upon us after 1991, as Mike chronicles so well in his epic book "Rubicon". Mike has provided a general roadmap, and it is pretty clear to any aware person in any situation what courses the events will shortly take under the differing circumstances in separate locales. I am aware that Mike has done a lot of work - in fact, done most of it - and he now deserves a good rest. But an occasional note from him like this won't do any harm and is actually needed. So he should consider becoming more active.
You bring up some very good points, F.K. I sometimes think about the people who are still living as aborigines, and how while Peak Oil will affect the rest of us, these people's lives will still go on pretty much as normal...Because they haven't become dependent on both oil and natural gas for their lifestyles.
You also bring up a good point about what happened after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Few people realize that the three cities with the greatest number of millionaires in them worldwide are New York, London, and Moscow. After the fall of communism the people in power in the Soviet Union were able to make deals with prominent Western businessmen to own and control both the real estate and important businesses, making themselves very wealthy in the process while making the average person in the former Soviet Union have a very tough time getting by.
I think that Mike Ruppert is right on in his assessment that all kinds of "experts" are going to begin appearing on the scene talking about the energy problem in the media, and offering their solutions to it. We're already starting to see politicians offering their own solutions to the problem, which have no basis in reality. But an uninformed public combined with a media that wants to quell the public's concern about our future, lays the foundation for these "experts" and the media to come together.
I recently heard a business consultant say the following to an audience:
"It's become more important now in our society to be the main celebrity in your field as compared with being the most competent in your field. When you're the main celebrity in your field, people will automatically assume that you're also the most competent in your field."
Great points businessman especially regarding the lack of a counter arguement to the mainstream press' lack of having an opposing point of view.
But there still are plenty of legitimate questions regarding Global Warming. We keep have hotter and hotter years, the icecaps/glaciers/iceshefs are melting/falling into the ocean(ie The Larson B Shelf), servere droughts all over the world...
We started reading Mike when the concept of Peak Oil was young. We read "Crossing the Rubicon," along with a few other things, and we believed.
There is a certain energy about something when it's true. It doesn't have to be validated over and over by pundits. You just know when it's right.
So we canceled our cable, stopped watching television, cashed out most of our 401K, purchased 30 acres of farmland in Central Texas free and clear, bought all the steel, straw bales, insulation and materials needed for a multi-family dwelling.
And we made a beginning.
The house is about one-third done. One side is completely livable, however without refrigerated air. It's geothermal, and it takes getting used to. We have a million-and half gallon lake, our ground is richening nicely, and we eating some things out of our garden.
We are almost completely out of the stock market. We've acquired all the silver we can afford and paid cash for everything we've bought.
My point is this: We began 3 years ago because we believed. If we had to make that same beginning today, we couldn't. The price of steel alone has doubled. The cost of our lake has doubled in contracting costs. The loads of sand and gravel, etc. -- all now have great surcharges tacked onto them.
Yes, there will be much talk coming down the pipe. But we must tune out the hysteria and go quietly about getting done what we need to get done.
Energy spent trying to make believers out of the masses is probably squandered. My personal code is to be supportive and helpful about those who want to learn the old ways. When I was a child, there was no air-conditioning and very few department stores and only one small grocer to a town. We made it, but we were simple.
Please everyone, be brave and consistent with your vision. Baby steps have a lot going for them. Never be afraid of taking a baby step.
We never dreamed that we would be this far along on our big dwelling.
Our grandchildren probably think we're nuts, but when they need a place to go, we'll be here...ready for them.
Thanks to Mike, to Stan Goff, to Carolyn Baker and Dale and all the rest. To Jenna, really, for holding so much together. Those who hold things together are heroes!
thank you cornsilk! you're an inspiring example
Very impressive, cornsilk!
I know that Mike moved to Ashland, Oregon and lived there for awhile. Has anyone either done any studies or made any recommendations on other cities or towns that would be ideal to move to to deal with the long-term ramifications of Peak Oil?
I've been trying to spread word about Peak Oil here in the west of London, UK.
A community website I have has a forum dedicated to Peak Oil stories.
http://www.hounslowtw3.net/forum/hounslow-peak-oil-awareness/
My partner and I have been speaking about this for 2 years now and all related topics (food security, energy independence, emergency preparedness) and we usually get the 'NA NA NA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!' with the fingers in the ears routine, and the thoughts 'geez, they're hats are looking more tinfoilish lately' as we depart. We get this from closest family friends, and it's natural, a human reaction to an impossible to face reality.
The reality is, you either already get this, or you never will. Changing people's minds is one of the hardest jobs imaginable.
I have no desire to waste my breath on the MSM, they are the lost, and the more of them that die off the better.
I also have no intention of raising my eco-warrior head up high enough so it can get lopped off. Cars trump bicycles, guns trump pitchforks, and corporate mouthpieces trump environmentalists.
The MSM is not going to come crawling to you for the truth at the 11th hour. They will all die, thinking, 'Gee, I wonder what REALLY happened in the world, other than all that bs I was forced to repeat?'
Protect your family first. Warn and protect your friends next. Plan to be without reliable power, and reliable food supplies. Start meeting and joining with like-minded neighbors and friends now. Contrary to the movies, it is the good people who share and band together who win, not the punks on motorcycles brandishing machine pistols. Read or re-read Lucifer's Hammer, and World Made by Hand. That is the future (well, hopefully minus the comet strike).
Then sit back with a big bag of popcorn and watch the meltdown. There's absolutely nothing you can do to prevent it. Why would you even want to? Why risk yourself at the 11th hour when your family needs you most, to the black vans and the cattle cars?
Peace and love to you all. Perhaps my village can trade with your village some day in our new future.
Mike, I'm stil crazy after ... all...I've got some new tunes to perk you up, so let me know where and how.
Ok, I think the new definition of wealth will be:
1. Owning your own land (and I mean "land", not condo)
1. Owning you own land (did I already say that ?)
2.Growing your own food.
3.Being off the grid
4.Electric car.
5.Close knit neighbors (no one can go anywhere anyway)
...more later
These techniques might help get the word out so as to preempt the media and create a sufficient mass awareness prior to the coming media babel.
http://www.davidbullock.com/175/overview-barack-obama-social-media-expert-project/
http://www.barack20.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Barack-Obamas-Social-Lessons-Business/dp/0578008025
http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/magazine/17-02/ff_obama?currentPage=all
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