Mikael Fernstrom

>Last sunday, I filled my car with petrol. 110.9 cents per liter. Today, one week later, the petrol price is around 130 cents. It’s autumn in Ireland and eventually the temperature will drop and we’ll get winter. We’ll need oil (gas, turf, coal) for heating. Irish people drive here there and everywhere. “I’ll just go and get the Sunday newspapers”, drive for a few miles, get papers, and back. We are not understanding the real cost of our lifestyle. Some researchers (with whom I agree with) state that we have passed the peak in the oil economy and from now on we’re on the slippery slope. There are few new oil wells found, while demand is increasing exponentially, especially from India and China. My prediction is that by Christmas, oil prices will hit US$ 100 per barrel. At that point, we’ll have all the governments of the Coalition of the Willing declaring that oil should be reserved or prioritized for security purposes, i.e. for the military. When that happens, the citizens of the countries of the Coalition will either have to rely on public transport, bicycles, walking or horses and donkeys.
Another interesting fact is that the Alliance of the Willing who has joined George W. Bush in Iraq are also the countries with the worst (highest) deficit in Ecological Footprint, i.e. how much resources are used per capita in terms of usable space on the planet Earth.
We’re living in a time that’s more interconnected than anytime before in human history. We know when something happens at the other side of the planet within minutes (if we, or the news corporations so want to). We have the computing power to simulate what will happen if this or that decision is made. Humankind has never been so powerful before, having tools that allow us to predict or foresee the future, if we want to. Still, we neglect this, and keep on going in our old familiar ways.