The Pulse of the Twin cities has at least taken a stab at the topic of peak oil and its implications for Minneapolis and our Metro area. You can read the article online at:
http://www.pulsetc.com/article.php?sid=1249 Kudos to Brian Kaller for breaking our local media's silence on this topic. Kaller also includes a list of references and links at the end of the article worth exploring. Another site worth exploring is Culture Change. This article by NYT's Paul Krugman is informative: http://www.culturechange.org/fall_of_petroleum_KrugmanOilCrunch.html Note that we are not doing the one thing we need to do in the face of Peak Oil and the permanent shortfall in production: adapt. The myth that we can "drill or conquer" our way out of this prevents us from adapting. We waste huge amounts of energy and money here in Minneapolis on roads, when transit and other adaptive innovations are sorely needed. The Pulse's Kaller and Culture Change both list the site http://www.dieoff.com/ and with good reason. Our corporate and political leadership are trained to deny the possibility that our oil-dependent, consumption-based economy is at the end of the road. "DieOff" is not a cute or trendy phrase, but it is an accurate description of what we are doing. Another phrase that is not cute or trendy is "kill-Off" which is what we do when we try to concentrate wealth and power in order to save ourselves at the expense of others. The global KillOff is fairly obvious to all. The local manifestation of KillOff is what happens when resources are drained from Minneapolis to pay for war, and local resources are concentrated to serve the needs of a shrinking group of people defined as "human" or "worth saving." Minneapolis has lost over $210 million dollars, and more if we understand that these numbers are not calculated on the real, larger costs of war, but only what is allowed to slip out in official numbers, always later revised. Local KillOff also happens when a small minority gains the political power to move money out of or within Minneapolis to accomodate the needs of those who are defined as real "humans" or "worth saving." Schools and libraries will be sacrificed for many. Jobs are cut, wages are cut, unions are weakened and busted. Religion will be used to whip up fear and bigotry, and to generate scapegoat stereotypes to justify disenfranchisement and brutality. "Let the Gangbangers kill each other, and let the poor (mostly black people, or people of color) people who choose (sic) to live around them get what they deserve! Deny equal recongnition for the relationships of gay and lesbian people, because they are less than heterosexuals, and they deserve less!" The KillOff is already underway, but it is still cloaked in relatively moderate guise. Poor and middle class students, families, neighborhoods, and schools will find that their children will have few options left in life. Sadly, most people fight over the scraps thrown to the masses, as recently on this list -- pitting the downtown Library against the neighborhood libraries, pitting union employees against the option of child labor, pitting oppressed against oppressed. These discussions serve to cover and enable the far more brutal transformation of our city and civic life. My assessment may seem harsh, but consider this: if we in Minneapolis were to respond to the changes in our world adaptivley, we would prepare for life with at least thirty percent less energy than we have now. Our political and corporate leaders would address this enourmous change openly and with tirelessly. We would prepare our infrastructure by replacing some pavement with community gardens and by intentionally remaking our city designed around walkable, bikable neighborhoods, with transportation hubs for people and for goods. Mike Neligh from Ankorage,Alaska, quotes archeologist Joseph Tainter as follows: "Energy has always been the basis of cultural complexity and it always will be. [T]he past clarifies potential paths to the future." (Taintner 34) Ultimately, the important issue is the degree to which society has specialized its functions in favor of the consumption of oil. The very health of the economy depends on our finding, producing and consuming ever-greater measures of oil. The average American has at their disposal every day, the amount of energy comparable to the energy available to a Roman who owned two hundred slaves. (Price 301) Short of the vast windfall that oil provides us, the world's economy would look today very much as it did in the pre-industrial past, and we would be forced to live as people of those ages lived. Maintaining current lifestyles with only a small reduction in available energy would be difficult for most and impossible for some. Living with the thirty percent reduction in energy that we are likely to see over the next twenty years will be impossible for most.... We in Minneapolis can wake up and create an inclusive local civic life which acknowleges the worth of all people, and which defies the current "KillOff" mode which desparately defends our "suicide economy" as though it is worth defending. There is plenty of money for transit, education, and thriving local agriculture, and even for the arts. We need to live and plan adaptively. No one will "drill or conquer" their way to a better life. We can do better than destroy our local schools and libraries while spending into debt on a violent urban transportation infrastructure. We all deserve a livable, sustainable urban environment -- not for a few at the expense of the many, but for all. Here are some three sources of numbers and the Neligh/Tainter quote... http://www.lysistrataproject.org/costofwar.htm http://www.nationalpriorities.org/issues/military/iraq/CostOfWar.html http://www.gulland.ca/depletion/Endofroad.htm -- pedaling for peace and urban ecojustice from Kingfield -- Gary Hoover REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
