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Well it seem that the speculators are now targeting the food supplies to hype and inflate food prices.
Our oil is privatized after all. The problem is not that is not enough food to go around, but that people can not afford to buy it due to the inflation caused by oil prices around the world. Do you know that US government subsided farmers in American to make them grow what the government wants them to grow? specially corn? only to be use for ethanol?
The Great Plains aquifer system underlies most of Nebraska, about one-half of Kansas, the eastern one-third of Colorado, and small parts of New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, South Dakota, and Wyoming. Total fresh ground-water withdrawals from the Great Plains aquifer in Kansas and Nebraska were about 133 million gallons per day during 1990. About 73 percent of the water withdrawn, or about 97 million gallons per day, was used for agricultural purposes, primarily irrigation.
Much of the recharge to the aquifer system is from precipitation that falls directly on aquifer outcrop areas in southern and southeastern Colorado and east-central Kansas. capp.water.usgs.gov/gwa/ch_d/D-text4.html
The Ogallala Aquifer underlies approximately 225,000 square miles in the Great Plains region, particularly in the High Plains of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska. Use of the aquifer began at the turn of the century and since World War II reliance on it has steadily increased. The withdrawal of this groundwater has now greatly surpassed the aquifer's rate of natural recharge. Some places overlying the aquifer have already exhausted their underground supply as a source of irrigation.
Here is a good example of a choice that society must make - consume the groundwater resource today or conserve it for future generations when climate in the region might not be as favorable to agricultural production as it is today. www.meteor.iastate.edu...
“It takes around 400 pounds of corn to make 25 gallons of ethanol,” Mr. Senauer, also an applied economics professor at Minnesota, said. “It’s not going to be a very good diet but that’s roughly enough to keep an adult person alive for a year.”A Harvard professor of environmental studies who has advised Mr. Gore, Michael McElroy, warned in a November-December 2006 article in Harvard Magazine that “the production of ethanol from either corn or sugar cane presents a new dilemma: whether the feedstock should be devoted to food or fuel. With increasing use of corn and sugar cane for fuel, a rise in related food prices would seem inevitable.” The article, “The Ethanol Illusion” went so far as to praise Senator McCain for summing up the corn-ethanol energy initiative launched in the United States in 2003 as “highway robbery perpetrated on the American public by Congress.”
under a federal agriculture program approved by Congress, his 18-acre suburban lot receives about $1,300 in annual "direct payments," because years ago the land was used to grow rice.
BTW I noticed how last year the large number of usually fallow fields were popping up full of corn, amazing. Food Crisis Starts Eclipsing Climate Change Worries Gore Ducks, as a Backlash Builds Against Biofuels
Does He Have A FAce?
If this Gas beast does have a face, Id like to punch him in it! . . my guess is if this person does have a face its gotta be someone with glasses or a woman. I guess id still punch them in the face, glasses, woman or otherwise.. just IMHO.
I took some time to cool off from a long day, and took the chance to get your clear message . . The face is you and me.. And I only end up punching myself in the face, because of my own ignorance..
Most of the world's oil pumps are about to shut down.In 1956, Hubbert predicted the continental United States would peak in 1970. He was correct, and the 1970s gave us a small, temporary taste of the sociopolitical and economic consequences of expensive oil.The world peaked at 74.3 million barrels per day in May 2005. The two-year decline to 73.2 million barrels per day produced a doubling of the price of crude. Later this year, we fall off the oil-supply cliff, with global supply plummeting below 70 million barrels/day. Oil at merely $100 per barrel will seem like the good old days.Within a decade, we'll be staring down the barrel of a crisis: Oil at $400 per barrel brings down the American Empire, the project of globalization and water coming through the taps. Never mind happy motoring through the never-ending suburbs in the Valley of the Sun. In a decade, unemployment will be approaching 100 percent, inflation will be running at 1,000 percent and central heating will be a pipe dream. By Guy R. McPherson
Peak oil spells the end of civilization. And, if it's not already too late, perhaps it will prevent the extinction of our species.
M. King Hubbert, a petroleum geologist employed by Shell Oil Co. described peak oil in 1956. Production of crude oil, like the production of many non-renewable resources, follows a bell-shaped curve. The top of the curve is termed "peak oil," or "Hubbert's peak," and it represents the halfway point for production.
The bell-shaped curve applies at all levels, from field to country to planet. After discovery, production ramps up relatively quickly. But when the light, sweet crude on top of the field runs out, increased energy and expense are required to extract the underlying heavy, sour crude. At some point, the energy required to extract a barrel of oil exceeds the energy contained in barrel of oil, so the pumps shut down.
Most of the world's oil pumps are about to shut down.
We have sufficient supply to keep the world running for 30 years or so, at the current level of demand. But that's irrelevant because the days of inexpensive oil are behind us. And the American Empire absolutely demands cheap oil. Never mind the 3,000-mile Caesar salad to which we've become accustomed. Cheap oil forms the basis for the 12,000-mile supply chain underlying the "just-in-time" delivery of plastic toys from China.
There goes next year's iPod.
In 1956, Hubbert predicted the continental United States would peak in 1970. He was correct, and the 1970s gave us a small, temporary taste of the sociopolitical and economic consequences of expensive oil.
We passed the world oil peak in 2005, and we've been easing down the other side by acquiring oil at the point of a gun - actually, guns are the smallest of the many weapons we're using - paying more for oil and destroying one culture after another as the high price of crude oil forces supply disruptions and power outages in Third World countries.
The world peaked at 74.3 million barrels per day in May 2005. The two-year decline to 73.2 million barrels per day produced a doubling of the price of crude. Later this year, we fall off the oil-supply cliff, with global supply plummeting below 70 million barrels/day. Oil at merely $100 per barrel will seem like the good old days.
Within a decade, we'll be staring down the barrel of a crisis: Oil at $400 per barrel brings down the American Empire, the project of globalization and water coming through the taps. Never mind happy motoring through the never-ending suburbs in the Valley of the Sun. In a decade, unemployment will be approaching 100 percent, inflation will be running at 1,000 percent and central heating will be a pipe dream.
In short, this country will be well on its way to the post-industrial Stone Age.
M. King Hubbert, a petroleum geologist employed by Shell Oil Co. described peak oil in 1956. Production of crude oil, like the production of many non-renewable resources, follows a bell-shaped curve. The top of the curve is termed "peak oil," or "Hubbert's peak," and it represents the halfway point for production.
Oil at merely $100 per barrel will seem like the good old days. Within a decade, we'll be staring down the barrel of a crisis: Oil at $400 per barrel brings down the American Empire, the project of globalization and water coming through the taps. Never mind happy motoring through the never-ending suburbs in the Valley of the Sun. In a decade, unemployment will be approaching 100 percent, inflation will be running at 1,000 percent and central heating will be a pipe dream. By Guy R. McPherson
If GOD is in charge of the WPA, then every person on the planet will be allotted an equal about of oil. If MAN is in charge, then the Rich and Strong will take all they want and leave the rest of us to fight over what’s left. But $400 oil? Never.