PRO 
         Planetary Rescue Operations
             The Management School of Restorative Business

TOC
- UC Student Hunger Strike: No More Nukes In Our Name!

- The Weapons of Mass Disinformation

- The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens      
      Part 1. Killed by Homo Economicus
      Part 2. Perpetuating Domination by Disseminating Disinformation
      Part 3. Reality Check: Is a Future Possible?
      Part 4. How Much Should Oil Really Cost?
      Part 5. Who Really Benefits from Cheap Oil 
      Part 6. Exporting Democracy 

- A Discussion with Noam Chomsky


Part 1. The Death of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Killed by Homo Economicus) 

By Harry Saloor
February 2007
 
Our lives are based on an abstraction that forms the basis of the modern economic theory. Homo Economicus model tells us that our total wants are insatiable, that we can make no value judgments and that whatever we desire must be normative. To ensure that the theory stands, however, we are bombarded with advertising. 

Our hard-earned incomes pay for items whose advertisements promise to enhance our life quality. Most of these products live ephemerally, however, on their way to the landfill, or incinerator.

The Homo economicus abstraction is viciously attacking against nature through its inordinate consumption of energy, especially oil. The abstraction has driven our ecosystems (life support systems) to the verge of imminent collapse. The ‘experts’ assure us that the modern economic theory is the best there is. The theory is “carefully designed,” they tell us, but so was the Titanic. 

E. F. Schumacher, in ‘Small is Beautiful,’ enumerated what he called the six leading ideas, a toolbox of ideas stemming from the nineteenth century by which the civilization interprets the world:
- Systemic application of the theory of evolution; 
- Natural selection, which insures the survival of the fittest through competition; 
- Suppression of spirituality, religion, philosophy, art and culture in favor of economic gains; 
- Relativism, which denies all absolutes and negates the idea of truth in pragmatism; 
- Positivism, which states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge and such knowledge can only come through empirical sciences (i.e., positive affirmation of scientific theories via exact scientific observations);
- Freud’s theory of unconscious mind, unconscious desire and repression.

Freud said, “Against the dreaded external world one can only defend oneself by some kind of turning away from it, if one intends to solve the task by oneself. There is, indeed, another and a better path: that of becoming a member of human community, and, with the help of a technique guided by science, going over to attack against nature and subjecting her to human will. [And if the technique guided by science fail to reverse the ‘marsification’ of Earth that it started in the first place, you can always hide behind more abstractions!]” 

Not surprisingly, the economic model with its Freudian framework has created a throwaway culture of obese, indolent and dumbed down insatiable consumers who, consciously or unconsciously, serve the [perceived] interest of a small cabal of international gangsters. Meantime, the economic abstractions are committing many species, including humans, to extinction.

The Oil Addiction 

In ‘For the Common Good,’ Herman Daly reminds us of Pimples Carson, a John Steinbeck’s protagonist in The Wayward Bus. Pimples “spent half of his income on doctors and salves whose advertisements promised to cure his acne, and the other half on candy bars and sugary pies whose advertisements told him that a workingman needs quick food energy. Thus Pimples Carson becomes the insatiable consumer, much to the benefit of the makers of candy bars and acne ointments but to his own personal detriment.”

Unfortunately, the ‘Pimples Carson syndrome’ has affected the entire developed world, much to the benefit of the cabal [whose interests do not coincide with the interest of 98 percent of Americans and most others elsewhere], but to the detriment of the ecosystems. The United States government spends half of it income (and the lives of many of its sons and daughters) on the military to ‘protect’ a fraction of its oil imports that come from the Middle East, and the other half on consuming more oil to make America even more dependant on foreign oil! 

Ironically, the United States can reduce its oil consumption by at least more than the amount it imports from the Middle East, and could even become completely independent of all foreign oil imports, by promoting non-carbon renewable sources and curbing waste. 

[Note: China, Japan, India, Brazil... continue to buy oil at prevailing market prices–averaged at about $55 per barrel in February 2007–without loosing a single citizen or killing an Iraqi.]

Drowning in Cheap Oil

After air and water, oil is arguably the most vital resource on Earth on which our lives have become dependant. Why is this most precious commodity trading at giveaway prices? Why and how are the oil pumping countries forced to underselling their lifeblood?

Oil is food. Our food system almost entirely depends on oil. To produce 1,000 kcal of food energy, the food production industry in the developed world uses up to 22,000 kcal almost entirely derived from cheap oil. [Typical figures for the energy markup for each 1,000 kcal of food from production until the food reaches our mouths include agricultural production, 2,800 kcal; transportation, up to 10,000kcal (depending on the country); food processing, 2,000 kcal; packaging material, 1,500 kcal; food retail, 1,200 kcal; advertising and commercial food service, 1,200 kcal; household storage and preparation, 3,300 kcal.] 

Our weekly shopping basket includes items that would have flown more air miles than the average family fly in their lifetime! A 1kg (2.2lb) bag of New Zealand kiwifruit (in any of its cadmium, arsenic, lead, mercury… or organochlorine variety) produces about 313 pounds of CO2e pollution flying to the US, or 416 pounds of CO2e to Europe. 

We use cheap oil to make more than 500,000 products: antiseptics, asphalt, battery cases, boats, cables, carpets, cars bodies, CDs, clothes, computers, containers, detergents, DVDs, fabrics, Fertilizers, glues, home appliances, insulation, medicines, office equipment, paints, pipes, plastics, printers, refrigerators, shoes, solvents, sports gears, tires, tools, toys, trash bags… The list covers more than two thousand pages.

We are told the market economy decides what is needed, and rejects what is not. If this is true, why must the market economy resort to blanket advertising, brainwashing its Homo economicus subjects by exposing them to 3,000 advertising messages each, day in day out? 

Why must market economy rely on in-built redundancy features to sell more of the same products at the expense of wasting tremendous amounts of energy? Why does the free market economy’s supply and demand interplay suppress the price of oil (usually through gunboat diplomacy), fail to recognize oil as a finite commodity and refuse to internalize environmental cost of the oil gluttony? Why the homo economicus subjects have to resort to military force to kill and maim hundreds of thousands of human beings so that they could feed their life-destroying addiction?

Our slaveholder, the car, is taking the food right out of our mouths. The late Ivan Illich, a renowned sociologist, reported in the 1970s that when the miles Americans drive are divided by the time spent in the car (sitting on congested roadways, driving, parking, and servicing) and paying for it, they average 5 mph-about twice slower than riding a bike. Today, the cars are getting fatter and running even slower.

Cheap oil has distorted the notion of creating ‘economic gains’ to such great extents that governments subsidize the industry to export and import the same product, often in similar quantities, within the same fiscal period. Country A exports Q tons of product P to country B, while it imports Q tons of the same product P from country B at the same time, with a net zero gain in commodity exchange for either country. However, the exchange produces about 9Q tons of CO2e pollution, nine times the weight of the commodity that was flown in either direction, for every 1,000 miles that the consignment is airborne. 

No doubt, their economic model registers this Enronesque racketeering in phantom GDP as a rise in the national wealth for both countries, but to the detriment of our environment and at the expense of poor countries.

So how do the captains of industry, governments, economic gurus and the ‘Andersonian’ crooks who cook their books account for their misadventure? How does the economic model explain, justify or excuse the pillage of cheap oil that has driven the ecosystems to the verge of collapse? What happens when the reality of ecocide finally begins to sink in?

Ed Crane of Cato Institute wrote, “The history of mankind is a history of the subjugation and exploitation of a great majority of people by an elite few by what has been appropriately termed the 'ruling class'. The ruling class has many manifestations. It can take the form of a religious orthodoxy, a monarchy, a dictatorship of the proletariat, outright fascism, or, in the case of the United States, corporate statism. In each instance the ruling class [more precisely, the cabal] relies on academics, scholars and 'experts' to legitimize and provide moral authority for its hegemony over the masses."

[Top]

Part 2. Perpetuating Domination by Disseminating Disinformation    

To illuminate Ed Crane’s findings about the ‘ruling elite’ (see Part 1 above) and the cabal’s strategies of using academics, scholars and 'experts' to legitimize their domination over the populace, the author’s quick search for a few examples included the following case, probably the most egregious example of how ‘experts’ dupe the populace.

Need more abstractions? Try science fiction! So many academics, scholars and 'experts' cannot possibly be wrong.

Enter the cosmologist extraordinaire, 'animated' Lucasian Professor of Mathematics and ‘perfect wheelchair figure,' academic, scholar and ‘expert’, Stephen Hawking.

Hospitable Planet Ahoy! 

Hawking, the ultimate authority on how the Almighty’s mind works [sic], says humans must colonize other planets to avoid extinction. “Sooner or later, disasters such as an asteroid collision or nuclear war could wipe us all out. But once we spread out into space and establish independent colonies, our future should be safe.” Note how easily the slick ‘expert’ hides behind science fiction to distract attention from the impending threat of runaway Global Warming as a pressing reason to evacuate our home planet and “to boldly go where no man has gone before!”

How do we get there, Mr. Spock? Exactly, which alien star system did you say we were heading?

Here is a myth created by the cabal with the crafty professor’s woven narrative serving to legitimize it. A natural disaster such as an asteroid collision [a very low probability event, since no one has detected an asteroid heading our way—save for Hollywood] is sandwiched together with another event of higher probability, a human-made disaster like a nuclear war that “could wipe us all out,” to create a ‘confusion combo’ for the mind. The narrative, which reinforces the myth, warns us that one way or another Earth will blow up. The ‘expert’ then invokes science fiction to offer the only possible way out [sic] of humanity’s dilemma: Colonize other ‘hospitable’ planets—an event with a near zero probability of occurring in our lifetime [there are no means available to travel to any such necessarily distant planet, even if one was observed.] 

Would nuclear Armageddon mind waiting a ‘jiffy,’ while we tank up, load our gear into the spacecraft and get our backside in gear [and bid farewell to the zombies who wish to stay behind and blow each other to kingdom come?] How many people are going, by the way, Scotty? Has the Federation authorized us to beam up any ‘black,’ ‘brown,’ ‘red,’ or ‘yellow’ aliens aboard the craft, Mr. O’Brien? Have the pioneers been screened by the Israeli security? Is any passenger carrying liquids? Will the ailing commander in chief be going with us, Bones?’ 

Hell hath no fury like a soul tortured!

Why does our ‘expert’ tout nuclear Armageddon as inevitable [sic], yet leaves out of his narrative the man-made environmental catastrophes, including the runaway global warming, triggered by the excessive energy consumption that have already driven 15 of the 24 ecosystems to the verge of collapse and threaten to destroy the remaining life support systems imminently? Whose interest is the he serving? 

Why does the professor portray human race as one incapable of impeaching and incarcerating a handful of genocidal psychos who live among them to stop a potential nuclear war, yet he expects them to find phantom planets in ‘Deep Space Nine’ and travel there by science fiction means to colonize them?

Reading Between the Lines

The myth tells us that human race was destined to fail monumentally on Earth. Humans could not quite ‘hack’ it here (perhaps because on Freud’s advice they attacked nature with their techniques guided by science until they drove life to the verge of extinction, see Part 1); however, the same species can avoid extinction if they ‘warp drive’ [science fiction speed] to ‘alien stars’ and colonize ‘hospitable' planets that orbit them. This unadulterated Orwellian doublethink is fallacious ‘antimatter’ even by Hollywood science fiction standards.

[Note Orwell’s description of ‘doublethink’ in his dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four: “The power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. ... To tell deliberate lies while genuinely believing in them, to forget any fact that has become inconvenient”.]

The mythmakers aim to demoralize and dissuade the audience from changing their ways, looking for alternative, engaging in less environmentally destructive activities [such activities pose a serious threat to the cabals’ perceived interests] or taking restorative measures where possible to help save what is left of the dying ecosystems. The doom scenario suggests since ‘the end is nigh’ we might as well carry on with business as usual—more cars on the roads and more flying lavatories in our skies. Homo economicus model does not allow value judgments!

The professor is trying to ‘pull the wool over our eyes’ by keeping the events timeline, the key item of information, out of the fabric of his narrative. Which of the two events happens first, professor, the nuclear Armageddon, or the salvation of humanity on a phantom planet? When will the nuclear war happen? How long would it take before the techniques guided by science could eventually ‘matter-antimatter’ humans into deep space?

[How much time have we left before the environmental catastrophes including Global Warming (caused by techniques guided by science) deliver our eviction notice? How many hospitable planets are out there orbiting alien stars, did you say?]

To further reinforce the myth, in January 2007, Stephen Hawking and fellow academics at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists [founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein and other scholars who had worked on the Manhattan Project building the atom bomb, but were deeply concerned about atomic bombs—glaring example of Orwell’s doublethink] moved the hand of their symbolic Doomsday Clock two minutes closer to midnight, their imagery of the Apocalypse [note the connotation of Rapture!] 

Lord Martin Rees, another of the ‘experts’ who is also president of The Royal Society (surprise, surprise!) and a fellow sponsor at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists fears that the terrorist will detonate a nuclear weapon in a large city, “killing tens of thousands along with themselves, and millions around the world would acclaim them as heroes.” [He dose not specify, however, which of the two vile acts he fears more!]

Interestingly, the acquisition of nuclear weapons technology by the terrorist state of Israel and their growing stockpile of nuclear warheads did not compel the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to readjust their clock.

As Captains sea-Cook and Flint might attest with significant hubris, ‘them’ folks (the Royal Society, Britain's ‘elite’ scientific academy) do not dish out their Copley medal to just any expert!

Why Not Use a More Conventional Technology?

The ‘old-fashioned’ chemical-propelled rockets are out, of course, you will have noticed. Not because enormous quantities of chemicals (oil) would be required for the rocket fuel (and most everyone knows by now we are running out of oil and opportunity), but because the professor’s snake oil must offer a proportionately extreme remedy [sic] that is in line with and does not belie or belittle enormity of the ‘problem.’ So, we are told to use the much faster matter-antimatter annihilation technology propulsion system, like the Star Trek’s Enterprise, to beam human race up and out, before ‘fit hits the shan’ here on Earth!

The less technologically prohibiting alternative [sic] of terraforming Mars, which other ‘experts’ have previously suggested, is no longer ‘hip,’ of course, because most everyone dislikes lackluster science fiction!

Beam Us Up Ricky!

On who will beam us up, the professor’s natural choice is the one and only, larger than life swashbuckling tycoon, Virgin’s immaculate buccaneer, Sir Richard Branson, of course [who else in the world would have a bigger ego or the incentive to save homo economicus?) 

Meanwhile, ‘Ricky’ the mass aviation ‘expert’ who is responsible for a generous share of CO2e pollution and, arguably, some of the spread of various communicable diseases, is waiting tickets in hand outside his ‘Galactic Spaceliner,’ ready to scalp the J.Q. Public. 

We truly sympathize with Stephen Hawking because of his unfortunate affliction with Lou Gehrig's disease (aka Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or ALS) which takes a tremendous toll on its victims’ emotional and financial resources; however, we do not believe that the distorted narrative emanates from his disability, nor the copious medication administered to keep him alive. [We have also ruled out pesticide poisoning caused by ingesting New Zealand wine.] 

Hawking’s carefully formulated narrative is tantamount to wartime propaganda prepared by the cabal’s disinformation apparatus. The cabal is hiding behind the professor’s disability using his silent, priestly gaze to reinforce their myth. The disinformation must not go challenged. 

As for our message to Kaptain Kirk: Keep your flying lavatories off our skies!

[Top]

Part 3. Reality Check: Is a Future Possible?

The culture of exponential growth is destroying the biosphere. [The biosphere is the part of our planet's shell within which life occurs and includes air, land, water and surface rocks. It consists of ecological systems, or ecosystems, which are the life support organisms that integrate all living beings, without whose continued service humans and other life forms could not survive. The biosphere evolved, it is widely believed, about 3.5 billion years ago.]

What is Ecological Footprint?
 
Nature provides us with food, fuel, forest products… and various systems to absorb our waste, especially carbon dioxide. The ecological footprint (EF) is a measure of our impact on Earth. EF is the amount of land and water area that we use to extract resources to support our lifestyles and to absorb our waste using prevailing technology. 

Humans EF grew by about 160 percent from 1961 to 2001, whereas the population only doubled over the same period, crossing the threshold of sustainability in the 1980s [or the 1970s if we set aside 12 percent of the bioproductive land to care for other species, following suggestions in the Brundtland Report.] The global EF was 13.5 billion global hectares (GH) in 2001, or 2.3 GH per person [GH is a measure of land or sea area with biological productivity equal to the global average.] Earth’s total biocapacity, based on its biologically productive area, however, was only 11 billion GH, which provided an average of only 1.8 GH per person. Humans EF exceeded global biocapacity by 0.5 GH per person, or by 22 percent [In fact, the deficit for 2001 rose to 38 percent, when reserving at least 12 percent of the available bioproductive area for other species.]

According to the projections, the world population has now reached 6.67 billion [February 2007]. The projected global EF for 2007 is 15.34 billion GH, whereas the available global capacity is about 9.8 GH, with only 1.46 GH available per person, resulting in a deficit of 0.8 GH per person. It means in 2007 humans consume 57 percent more than the nature could provide continuously.

The overshoot of global biocapacity means spending natural capital faster than nature can regenerate it, which is reducing the ecological carrying capacity permanently: Ecological crash becomes unavoidable.

According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), a comprehensive UN report backed by 1,360 leading scientists from 95 countries released in March 2005, at least 15 of the planet’s 24 ecosystems were on the verge of collapse including fresh water, fisheries, air and water purification systems, and the systems that regulate climate, natural hazards, and pests. It takes only a fractional increase in our ecological footprint to destroy the remaining ecosystems—a scenario which is unfolding before our eyes.

[Notes:
1. The above calculations do not include the reduction (erosion) in the Earth’s biological productivity. The EF calculations also exclude activities that fall outside the boundaries of sustainability, but accelerate the collapse of ecosystems including release to the biosphere of radioactive materials, CFCs, crude oil spills, chemicals and biohazards, heavy metals, persistent organic and inorganic toxins and other industrial/municipal/agricultural wastes.  

2. MSRB has created a new index called Index of Human Impact on Nature (HIoN) that calculates the full human impact on the Earth's ecosystems including consumption, deterioration to Earth's biological productivity and the rate of collapse of the ecosystems. As of March 2007, the HIoN index stands at a terminally high level of 171.40. That is, the full human impact on his living environment for the 12-month period ending March 2007 was 71.4 percent higher than the planet in its current state can cope with.]

Damage to Environment

The damage humans have inflicted on the environment is irreversible. The greenhouse effect is here to stay. The earth is heating progressively resulting in the onset of many catastrophic climate events. The mounting problems are just beginning to surface, however, there is about a 30-year delay between exponentially growing human activities that release greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide, CO2; methane, CH4; chloroflourocarbons or CFC's…) into the atmosphere, and the warming of ocean waters. 

Water, Land and Food

Planet’s supply of fresh water is simply running out. The water quality continues to deteriorate globally from pollution, rising temperatures and overconsumption. Globally, at least one person in five has no access to safe water, according to the UN. The exponential growth culture is irreversibly depleting also our natural food reserves resulting in collapsing fisheries, disappearing species... 

The world’s arable land and top soil are shrinking. The pressure to produce more food is degrading the soil productivity resulting in desertification. About 6 million hectares of arable land are lost each year, blown away by the wind. The problems are further compounded by the eroding soils, mudslides... as well as contamination of the food chain by fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, synthetic chemicals, disease, harmful radiation, antibiotics… 

More and more of the tropical rainforests are cleared, usually by fire, to provide land for grazing and cultivation resulting in the loss of innumerable plants and animal species. We are loosing more than 10 million hectares of forest and possibly as many as 27,000 species that inhabit them, each year.

Toxic Pollutants

In addition to greenhouse gases, industrial activities release more than 15 billion pounds (about 7 million metric tons) of toxic pollutants into the environment each year. The deadly cocktails of pollutants include several thousand toxic substances, but only 667 are reported. [Toxic pollutants like perchlorate—rocket fuel— found in every breast milk sample taken from 18 states by the Texas Tech University researchers in 2005 are not on the list.] Our bodies contain about 500 measurable chemicals that should not be there.

We convert 57 trillion pounds (26 billion metric tons) of raw materials to garbage, which are rapidly engulfing our living space like giant quicksands.

Exponentially increasing inventories of municipal waste, industrial pollution, farm waste, pesticide and fertilizer runoffs, pollution from industrial accidents, automobile pollution, and toxic and radionuclide waste released to the environment have poisoned our air, water and soil, resulting in more acid rain and more dead zones in coastal waters.

Ozone Depletion

Atmospheric ozone shield, which protects life against harmful radiations, is depleting. Without ozone, life on Earth is not possible. Ozone depletion allows higher levels of UV radiation (UVA and UVB) reaching Earth's surface and poses the biggest threat to life and the ecosystems. Increased UV radiation impairs human immune system, causing genetic mutations and increasing the risk of various diseases and incidents of skin cancer. Increased UV radiation retards crop growth by altering the physiological and developmental processes of plants and contributes to eco-feedbacks that increase the buildup of greenhouse gases, and reduces ozone. During the Antarctic ozone depletion season, the amount of UV radiation reaching Antarctica increases by at least 50 percent. In addition to Antarctica, ozone depletion now affects North America, especially Canada, Europe, Russia, most of South America, Australia and New Zealand. 

Exposure to UV reduces the survival rates of phytoplankton that form the basis of aquatic food chains. According to estimates, ozone depletion of about 16 percent could result in a disastrous loss of about 7 million tons of fish per year - almost 10 percent of the current annual global catch.

American Chemist G. Tyler Miller, Jr. wrote (1971): “Three hundred trout are needed to support one man for a year. The trout, in turn, must consume 90,000 frogs, that must consume 27 million grasshoppers that live off of 1,000 tons of grass.”

Warning: Do Not Eat More Than Zero Fishmeal in Your Lifetime!

Those, of course, were last of the golden days when you could eat more than one fishmeal a month and hold on to your sanity, unaffected by mercurialism (mercury poisoning), to talk about it the next day. Today, the Environmental Defense Network’s recommended intake of the Spotted-Seatrout is zero (meals per lifetime) due to the very high levels of PCBs and mercury contamination.

While the life habitat, natural food supplies and nonrenewable resources on Earth continue to shrink or disappear entirely, the world population keeps on growing at a phenomenal rate of about 100 million people each year.

Carbon Emissions

In 2006, we pumped more than 16,000,000,000,000 pounds carbon [7.4 billion metric tons—about 30 times the combined weight of the entire world population—corresponding to of 27.2 billion tons of CO2e equivalent greenhouse gasses] to the atmosphere. In the past 30 years, the burning of fossil fuels and cement production emitted nearly one and a half times as much carbon (180 billion tons) to the atmosphere as the preceding 224 years (1751 – 1975). The gang rape of the environment must stop! 

Human and Financial Costs 

Natural and human-made catastrophes claimed about 97,000 lives worldwide and resulted in financial losses of more than US dollars 230 billion in 2005, according to the reinsurers, Swiss Re. Their figures for 2004 were 300,000 lives lost and a financial loss of USD123 billion. 

The commitment to the exponential growth culture that encourages unsustainable lifestyles pumped with adrenalin, hyperconsumerism and overconsumption is tearing apart the fabric of life on Earth. This psychosis must cease!

Oil

Mother Nature made, depending on whose figures we believe, total deposits of 1.8 - 2.2 trillion barrels of [conventional] oil. Since the discovery of oil as a popular fuel, humans have consumed about one-half of the deposits (~ 950 billion barrels). In 2006, about 31 billion barrels of oil were pumped out of the ground. 

It seems deceptively simple to calculate the remaining years before the oil runs out. Divide the deposits left in the ground by the total oil supplied in 2006 to arrive at 29, the number of years left before the supplies run out. In reality, however, the calculations are somewhat more complex because various dynamics kick in. 

1. World oil demand is exponentially increasing (more people, more oil to make food, more consumer goods, more possessions, more cars, more roads, more car journeys, more flights…). The annual growth rate for oil consumption is currently 2% (cf., 1.4% in 2001, and 1.8% in 2006). A forecast by International Energy Agency suggests a rise of 47% by 2030. The forecast seems peculiar, however, because at their suggested rate of increase the known oil reserves would have effectively run out before 2030. 

2. In the early days, large oil fields returned more than 100 barrels of oil for each barrel invested in the discovery, extraction, transportation and refining. This high ratio of the Energy Returned on Energy Invested (EROEI) is no longer achievable. Currently, the average EROEI is much less than 10:1 (MSRB estimate for the average EROEI is about 4.5:1). As the EROEI of a resource approaches 1:1 (this happens long before the resource is physically exhausted), the net energy gain approaches zero, in which case production is no longer viable as a net energy source.

America has 2 percent of the known global reserves but uses 25 percent of the world's oil supplies importing about two-thirds of its consumption. This unworkable balance is unsustainable as a long-term formula and poses a serious threat to the world security and therefore to the welfare of the American people. [The tyrant rulers, depraved ruling families, or puppet regimes that rule most of the oil-pumping nations serve the interest of the cabal (that rules the United States.) However, the old relationships are becoming increasingly untenable, and pose a risk to the world security—between them Saudi Arabia, the UAE and others control some 50 percent of world (known) oil reserves .]

For a Fistful of Dollars: Monetary Exchange Value; Not Wealth 

Nothing preoccupies the human race more than creating wealth. The general understanding of wealth is the transforming of natural resources to useable goods through work. In the economic sense, wealth increases when labor assumes specialized roles and employs capital (energy and machinery). Theoretically, the wealth increases as labor, capital or both are increased.

In reality, however, there are physical limits to how much wealth can be created or how far the economic growth can expand. The economic system is a subset of the ecological system and the ecology, Earth, is not growing. Any forced extension beyond the natural limits imposed by the biosphere would destroy the ecology, as previously noted. 

‘Experts’ tell us, however, without exponential growth (growth with a fixed doubling time) the poor would always remain impoverished and the rich couldn’t make anymore money, that we cannot even begin to set aside enough money to meet our future needs and that the economy cannot provide full employment. They say, unless we continue with the economic growth and create wealth exponentially our welfare would be in grave peril. 
What the exponential growth creates, however, is monetary exchange value, not wealth. As witnessed earlier, a prelude to the mounting ecological deficits and environmental casualties are already lain victim to the exponential growth culture. 

Human Welfare 

Human welfare is not limited to economic welfare alone. It includes a host of other welfare, which are noneconomic in nature and with nonmonetizable values. 

Total Human Welfare = Economic Welfare + Noneconomic Welfare

The above equation remains valid only when the sum total of all welfare is positive, i.e., no conflict of interest can arise between the economic welfare and the noneconomic welfare. Having exceeded Earth’s ecological carrying capacity en route to maximizing economic welfare, however, we have inflicted serious damage to the environment, which provides most of our noneconomic welfare. Consequently, the assault on nature has invalidated the equation. Any activity that raises the economic welfare affects the environment reducing the noneconomic welfare. In other words, our perceived economic welfare is now working against our noneconomic welfare. Any rise in economic activity precipitates our total welfare into negative territory.

There are two means of reversing this critical trend. First, by drastically reducing economic activities (to near zero), we would reduce the harm to the environment and, in turn, help the recovery of the noneconomic welfare thus hoisting our total welfare from the negative into the positive territory. Second, by switching to an entirely different system of economy that neither plunders Earth’s natural resources nor destroys the ecosystems in favor of increasing the monetary exchange value [to the detriment of all life forms including human beings, but to the perceived benefit of a small cabal of moneychangers.]

[Top]

Part 4. Exponential Growth Economy and Oil: How much should oil really cost?

The system of exponential growth has failed civilization monumentally and on all counts! The runaway economy continues to exploit cheap oil to feed its malignant growth, while failing to recognize that burning oil (and other fossil fuels) is responsible for nearly all of the environmental catastrophes and the looming ecological collapse; and that oil is a finite resource, which is approaching depletion. This system of economy is susceptible to total collapse at any time, especially if triggered by shortages in the oil supplies, and is therefore unsustainable. 

The Oil Paradox

The exponential growth culture has created a curious paradox: 
A. If the global consumption of oil persists at current levels (let alone increased by 2% a year as the forecasts suggest), the ecological system and therefore its subsystem, the economy, would collapse. [Our projections show a partial but significant collapse by as early as 2015.]

B. Both the economy and social system (civilization) would collapse as oil becomes scarcer. Any large reduction in the supplies of cheap oil (in the absence of a strong community management program) would result in the collapse of the economic system, forced by lower outputs and reduced mobility. Competition and conflict over the remaining finite resources of oil would result in war, possibly a global thermonuclear war, which would result in the collapse of civilization and all other systems. 

We have reached an ecological threshold whereby any economic activity within the malignant culture of exponential growth triggers a host of destructive forces that are detrimental to the environment and human welfare. To steer away from the two equally undesirable scenarios, however, a two-step defense strategy is available: 

Step One: To prevent the ecology from total collapse, the global supplies and consumption of oil must be reduced substantially. This can only work by increasing the price of oil and by placing a ceiling on the total amount of oil extracted globally.

Step Two: Having prevented the collapse of the ecology (we hope), the collapse of the social system can be avoided by removing the exponential growth economy from the picture and replacing it with life-centered community management program. To create a semblance of a sustainable future, the leading nations of the world must adopt a different system of economy, the Democratic Economy. 


The Democratic Economy 

The need for a new system of community-based economy is paramount if, at least, some of our children are to have a future, and perhaps a chance of experiencing a fraction of the enjoyment and privileges of life to which they were entitled. Having bailed out of our commitment to the culture of exponential growth and disclaimed our false economic welfare we must switch to a system of life-centered economy where basic needs of human beings are integrated into the restoration of the ecological systems. Democratic Economy is economy for community designed to be sustainable and to meet all of basic needs of human being without causing further damage to the ecology. The human communities on a regional, national and global level assume guardianship for the entire living community including humans, other animals, plants and what is left of the planet’s natural capital and ecosystems. More on this subject, later.

There is a small window of opportunity, but its size is shrinking according to the urgency by which we act to stop the collapse of the biosphere. 

Oil Price and the Elusive GDP

Trying to fix the price of a vital commodity like oil in the debt driven, gangster-ridden, ‘now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t’ exponentially growing system of economy is tantamount to creating an elastic yardstick. As the industry experiences a price hike in the energy supplies, it would increase the price of their goods by an even larger margin making the goods and services more expensive. This is probably not a bad thing for the environment [save for other inflationary factors and other human uncertainties] because many of the unwanted products and services would simply price themselves out of the market. 

Our attempt is to highlight the value of oil as a vital commodity and not just to increase the price of oil for the sake of creating worldwide inflation to the detriment of the poor. 
On a purely mathematical basis, all other prices, indexes and variables remaining equal, we believe a substantial increase in the oil prices, moving it closer toward its actual value, coupled with an agreed ceiling on the production, would reduce extraction, export and therefore the consumption. As a result, the environmental pollution would decrease substantially to the benefit of ecosystems and all life forms including human beings.

Total world GDP (purchasing power parity) for 2006 was an estimated 65 trillion dollars. In the same year the total energy supply worldwide was a staggering 481 exajoules (4.81+E20), about 150 times its pre-industrial levels, about 40 percent of which came from oil. We believe that without such massive surge in the energy supplies, the total world GDP would have been at least 150 times lower than the actual figure (assumption is made that the pre-industrial milieu could support the current world population of 6.67 billion).

It would be reasonable therefore to equate the value of the 31 billion barrels of oil pumped out of the ground in 2006 to 40 percent of the total world GDP, or 26 trillion dollars. Based on this figure the average price of each barrel of oil would rise to over 838 dollars. 

Calculations:
65 trillion dollars x 0.4 = 26 trillion dollars [actual value of the total oil pumped throughout 2006 as a share of the world GDP] 
26 trillion dollars  ÷ 31 billion barrels of oil = 838.71 dollars [minimum actual value for a barrel of oil] 

This figure of course does not take into account other important factors. 

First, the premium value of oil as a major fuel for transportation. Without oil, the producer and the service provider cannot reach the market and the wheels of industry would come to a grinding halt. No other fuel could currently claim a similar utility value. In 2006, oil accounted for at least 96 percent of the transport fuel use. Let us call this premium increase the ‘utility value.’

Second, the additional premium attached to oil as a finite resource. The remaining useable oil in the ground should last us much longer than the appointed decade or two, until the human community has decided to shake off its ‘Freudian feathers,’ adopt democratic economies and develop ‘clean,’ renewable sources of energy to replace carbon fuels, paid for from the current oil incomes. Call this premium increase the ‘continuity value.’ 

Third, premium for internalizing cost of the environmental damage caused by oil consumption (and other carbon fuels). To save what remains of our collapsing ecosystems, the ‘producer’ must internalize the cost of offsetting the environmental damage caused by oil consumption, and pay for the development cost of alternative human-centered community systems that are not dependant on oil. [The premium should increase for more polluting fossil fuels like coal.] The internalization of pollution cost at source must not provide governments the excuse to relegate, or abandon their duty of care to the environment. The producers must also be solely accountable for any damage caused by oil spillages during shipping and distribution. By adopting this ‘door-to-door’ care system, we also aim to remove last vestiges of purpose or ‘usefulness’ for the existing oil companies. Call this premium the ‘restoration value.’

Fourth, premium reserved to pay for supplying oil to poor nations/communities for their basic needs. To avoid any reliance on a trickle down system where the oil supplied to the rich would be expected to somehow miraculously reach the poor, the producer would reserve a premium to supply oil to the poor nations/communities through its door-to-door care system (discussed earlier).

Five, the premium added for cost of monitoring the extraction ceiling and export. This premium would pay for the cost of monitoring the agreed ceiling placed on the extraction and export of oil on a national level. However, it is highly unlikely that the depraved ruling elite in countries such as Saudi Arabia and the former pumping stations now rent-a-citizen Gulf States would honor any agreements reached in this regard. It would therefore be necessary to impose heavy penalties on such regimes when they breach the extraction quotas. More on this issue later. 

As the additional premiums are added to the price of oil, the cost of a barrel rises above the 1,000 dollars reaching its true value somewhere below the 2,000 dollar per barrel mark. The proponents of cheap oil and the chrematists who profit from selling large volumes of oil at give-away prices would no doubt complain bitterly and try their utmost to block any such move. They would cite a host of reasons, especially inflation, which would decrease consumption (!) and bring the industry to a grinding halt thus affecting the elusive GDP (what’s so bad about that?)

Our answer to these elements is that reducing the supplies and consumption of oil, as noted earlier, is the only way to stop the exponential deterioration of the ecosystems and prevent an ecological crash. Everything else must follow suit. The time has come to sacrifice the interest of a handful of individuals in favor of saving life on the planet. Either we reduce our ecological footprint (especially in the consumption of oil and absorption of the deadly pollutions created as a result), or nature would decide for us, probably decimating our numbers, or worse, a total collapse of the ecosystems would occur.

We believe that by adopting a system of Democratic Economy on regional, national and global level that trades oil at or near its actual value, mindless consumerism and product fetishism would end. By producing only the goods that human community really needs (as opposed to the dumped merchandise perceived as necessary), the pressure on the Earth’s natural resources would ease. Lowering the volume of production would result in reducing the overall volumes of waste, and improving life quality.

We believe that in a system of Democratic Economy a slowdown in manufacturing would translate to less capital requirements, which in turn results in less energy needed to produce the machinery. By producing only the essentials and without the use of large capital, the system would create full employment opportunities. 

Flying fewer or no passengers to the world’s ‘holiday destinations,’ or consuming fewer or no food products flown half-way across the world, the community-owned airlines and food production industries would help reduce the levels of CO2e greenhouse gasses and other toxic pollution significantly.

As the price of oil reaches closer to its actual value, fewer vehicles remain on the roads, hence creating less CO2e pollution. A system of Democratic Economy would enable us to redesign our car-centered population centers as human-centered communities, which would require far fewer vehicles to run. Human-centered communities provide safer, healthier and emotionally rewarding environments. They create more jobs, provide more varieties and require far less energy to manage, and are therefore less costly and more sustainable. 

Building fewer roads and parking spaces, human-centered communities would free the land for local food production, creating reliable, healthy produce at affordable prices, which would ease the pressure to compete for resources.

Life as usual is no longer an option - at the current rates of decline our life support systems could collapse within our lifetime, probably even sooner than projected. 

[Note: If we do not understand the message, then we must ask until we do. Because once we have understood the message, only one course of action remains. Stop the Ecocide! Otherwise, we need to prepare something along the following lines to whisper in our children’s ears, every night before they go to sleep: 

“Honestly, sweetheart, I kind of realized what was happening, but just didn’t have the time, incentive, or moral courage to do anything about it. Don’t you worry though, because ‘experts’ say when you grow up you can use matter/antimatter technology to travel to outer space and look for another hospitable planet …’]

Part 5 - Who Really Benefits from Cheap Oil: Where Is All the Money Going?

“None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Oil is the most convenient medium for creating ‘wealth.’ Oil is cheap because a ruthless cabal of highly motivated international gangsters decides its price.

In its quest for world dominion, the cabal employs a two-step mechanism to maximize power: First, the creation of enormous amounts of wealth through a deluge of cheap oil; second, the transfer of wealth from the large majority who created it to a tiny minority—the cabal members who desperately crave supremacy.

Step One: Creating Wealth

The US GDP (purchasing power parity) was an estimated $12.98 trillion in 2006 [GDP calculated at official exchange rate: $13.22 trillion] or about 20 percent of the world’s total. Not surprisingly, America consumed about 25 percent of the world’s oil supplies in the same year.

What happened to all that wealth? What do the average Americans have to show for so much economic activity, especially in a milieu where their activities are working directly against their total welfare? [See Human Welfare in Part 3, above.] 

The answer is debt, more debt and poverty! The ratio of household debt in the US has risen from 71 percent of disposable income in 1979 to 126 percent (third quarter of 2005). The current debt is 63 times higher than the 1957 ratio. 

The outstanding public debt on 28 Feb 2007 at 02:56:38 am GMT flashed past $8,776,073,155,577.10 (8.78 trillion dollars) and is rising at a rate of $1.77 billion per day. [See the U.S. National Debt Clock http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/ ]    

According to Grandfather Economic Report series, ‘Total America Debt’ is now $44 trillion. Total America Debt is “the sum of all recognized debt of federal, state & local governments, international, private households, business and domestic financial sectors, including federal debt to trust funds - but excludes the huge un-funded contingent liabilities of social security, government pensions and Medicare... [about] 68% ($30 trillion) of this debt was created since 1990...”

About 40 million Americans fall below the official poverty threshold (we have ruled them out as the beneficiaries of cheap oil). An analysis on poverty published by McClatchy Newspapers on February 26, 2007 reported: "The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation's 'haves' and 'have-nots' continues to widen." One in 18 Americans resides in dire poverty.

The poverty rate for children in the United States is the highest among the industrialized countries (with the exception of New Zealand —already declared morally bankrupt). The living standard of the bottom 10% in the US was the second lowest among all developed nations (the United Kingdom, surprise, surprise, the only permanent member of Bush’s ‘coalition of the willing,’ had the lowest standard of living for its impoverished children in 2001).

Meanwhile, the nation’s 'haves,' or at least the middle class segment of the 'haves,' are quickly loosing their foothold on the 'privilege' rung of the 'wealth' ladder. Increasingly, fewer than 2 percent of Americans wake up every morning and recite blessings like, "thank you, Lord, for not making me a slave!" This is because the cabal's narrow interests no longer coincide with the welfare of the middle class Americans (let alone most of the rest of the world population). In fact, any real or perceived benefits enjoyed thus far by the middle-class baby-boomers may well prove to be the necessary preparations (a 'publicity stunt') leading to the cabal's endgame. 

So, where is all the money going?

Step Two. War: The Fastest Means of Transferring Wealth

War is the second phase of the cabal's two-step strategy for maximizing and transferring wealth and power. The wealth from cheap oil is ultimately transferred from the majority who created it to the tiny few cabal members through waging serial (permanent) wars.

In the previous fiscal year, forced addiction to war cost the Americans more than 1.2 trillion dollars.  War Resistors (http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm) reports that in the fiscal year 2008, the military spending will cost America at least $1,228 billion, or 51% of the $2,387 billion federal funds (the federal budget for fiscal 2008 including the outlays and deficit is $2,752 billion).

[What about public health, public education, public housing and the victims of hurricanes Katrina and Rita? "Who's Rita?"]

The cabal's power structure extends throughout the world and includes assets such as the world's largest banks and multinational corporations; they control the movement of monetary exchange instruments, flow of oil and other natural resources globally.

In contrast to the debt and poverty in the U-S (and throughout the globe), the assets of the world’s top 25 banks rose to about $28 trillion or 41% of the aggregate assets of the world's top 1000 banks (total assets: $68.54 trillion) in 2006. [Source: www.thebanker.com]

The cabal manipulates the price of oil according to its perceived interests via its 'human' assets, which include the ruthless rulers, autocratic regimes and degenerate 'royal' families throughout the oil-exporting world.

The malignant subordinates, appointed to positions of authority by the cabal, are heavily protected by armed forces. They respond to their minders purely for self-serving reasons and out of primeval fear of being ousted from power, or worse, being prosecuted for their crimes against humanity. To protect their self-interest and their skin, they sell oil at prices that promote the cabal's monetary goals. [Ultimately, the sheikhs pay back most of the money they receive to buy arms!]

Their self-interests are diagonally opposite to the interest of their populace, 98% of the Americans and the majority of others throughout the world. They have little or no understanding of the ecosystems and show no concern for the welfare of humanity. They have become a major party to the crime of ecocide and must bear most of the responsibility for the collapsing ecosystems.

The malevolent regimes in the former pumping-stations-turned-states in the Gulf share a number of common features:

• They are all expendable (if they disobey orders, or become redundant, the cabal would eliminate them.)
• Former British protectorates, these states were granted 'independence' based on perpetual oil and mineral concessions whose terms and conditions were highly favorable to their protector and its assignees.
• The regimes are undemocratic and rule through subjugation and tyranny and exercise power of life and death over their subjects.
• They have extremely poor human rights records, and hide behind religious traditions.
• They arm themselves to the teeth to shield against democracy, and to protect themselves against own subjects or the less fortunate groups elsewhere in the Arab world.
• To protect their self-interest, they bend backward (or forward, if you will) to please their minders and thus stay in power.

The cabal's relationship with their puppet regimes in the Gulf sheikhdoms is a class of symbiosis named mutualism where, in each case, both parties seemingly benefit and neither suffers. Their mutual benefit however excludes all other parties (e.g., own populace, the average U-S Citizen, U-S servicemen and women, and just about everyone else throughout the world).

The picture of how the symbiosis between the protected and their protectors works becomes clearer when these regimes are scrutinized in the light of the Iraqi experience, especially since the 1968 Ba'athist Coup. The cabal’s appointed strongman Saddam Hussein purchased billions of dollars worth of arms, committed genocide against his own people, waged a long war against Iran, invaded Kuwait and finally paved the way for the invasion of Iraq by the 'coalition of the willing.' As a result of Hussein’s services to the cabal as many as 4 million people were killed or maimed [and many more victims join the statistics daily] including Iraqis, Kurds, Iranians, Kuwaitis, Americans, British… and an estimated 2 trillion dollars (and growing) have been pocketed by the cabal. [Note, we are unable to determine a price for the life of each of the millions of individuals who have lost their lives or continue to fall victim to the cabal's monetary interests.]

Part 6 - Exporting Democracy to the Middle East

How could anyone expect a hypothetical democracy in the Persian Gulf Oil States to undersell their nation's sole source of income and pay back the money to buy arms?

Mr. Bush talks about exporting democracy to the Middle East. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course. Democracy, unlike the political economy, is not a zero sum game. We fail to see how George Bush could claim kudos for the 'export of democracy' to Afghanistan and Iraq, while he foregoes democracy concomitantly in the United States.

For anyone still in doubt, we would assert that Mr. Bush is not telling the truth (again) because

1. Mr. Bush serves the interests of the cabal that appointed him as President. Having participated in two fraudulent elections, facilitated by the two-party political mafia, he could not possibly be interested in or respect the rule of law and democratic values.

2. Under Bush [and his mentor, Cheney,] America is falling deeper into tyranny. America has become a military dictatorship ruled by a mindless Junta, thinly disguised as theocrats, which get their orders from the big money. Today the Junta proclaims

- The despotic power to set aside habeas corpus: To arrest arbitrarily and hold the citizen indefinitely: no warrant for the arrest, no charges before a judge and no case before a jury.

- The PATRIOT Act: Autonomous surveillance powers granted to the police. Powers to spy on citizens are tantamount to the unconstitutional violations of the rights of citizens.

- Breech of the prohibition against psychological torture of detainees in the US and physical torture of detainees abroad.

- Breech of the attorney-client privilege (the Lynne Stewart case) aimed at deterring attorneys who might otherwise represent unpopular clients dutifully. [For an in-depth analysis, see ‘The Police State Is Closer Than You Think,’ by Paul Craig Roberts available at URL: http://www.lewrockwell.com/roberts/roberts127.html]

3. It is highly unlikely that a democratic regime in any of the oil-pumping states in the Gulf be willing to sell their most precious commodity at giveaway prices. How could a hypothetical democracy in, say, Saudi Arabia undersell their nation's sole source of income and pay back most of the money to buy arms? The welfare of any potential democracy in the Persian Gulf would directly conflict with the cabal's interests, threaten the cabal's power structure and therefore be regarded as hostile.  

4. On the other hand, if a [real] US President were to usher democracy to the Middle East their first and most essential port of call would be Saudi Arabia where democracy is desperately needed for reasons of world security—not Afghanistan or Iraq. We therefore conclude that Mr. Bush and the cabal that protect him have neither any interest in maintaining democracy at 'home,' nor any intention whatever to exporting democracy abroad, especially the Middle East .

Saudi Arabia and the Specter of Democracy

Saudi Arabia sits on the world’s largest known oil reserves, estimated between 17-25% of the total reserves. [Saudi sheiks, possibly compelled by the fear of early redundancy due to strategic geopolitical reasons, increased their oil reserves from 170 to 258 billion barrels overnight in 1988.] Further, Saudi Arabia together with other pumping-stations-turned-states in the Gulf hold about 41% of the world’s known oil reserves. It is therefore vital to establish democratic systems throughout these states in the interest of world security. 

The depraved Saudi ruling class, their 'kings,' 'royals' and sheikhs, are among the most brutal, corrupted and deviant individuals on the face of our planet. They defy the rule of international law with impunity because the cabal that rules America affords them full protection.

Saudi Arabia's human rights record is appallingly poor. Saudi Arabia is one of only a few countries where suspected criminals without due process face penalties including corporal punishment such as amputations of hands and feet. The Saudi Regime oppresses religious and political minorities, tortures prisoners, and abuses women. Recently, a young Saudi rape victim received the same punishment as the gang who raped her and her male companion.

According to a Human Rights Watch report in 2001, "Saudi women [continue] to face severe discrimination in all aspects of their lives, including the family, education, employment, and the justice system."

Public executions by beheading and stoning, and private executions by shooting, staged for selected audiences, are commonplace in Saudi Arabia.  

The report also stated, "Saudi Arabia continued to provide refuge and financial support to Idi Amin, the exiled Ugandan leader whose regime was responsible for a reign of terror that left an estimated 300,000 dead in the 1970s. After fleeing Uganda in 1979, Amin arrived in the kingdom at the invitation of the late King Faisal... A journalist [who] interviewed Amin in Jeddah in 1999  reported that [Amin had moved] ‘to a more exclusive area...mainly occupied by powerful oil sheikhs.’" Amin died in August 2003 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Human Trafficking in Saudi Arabia

Although Saudi Arabia outlawed slavery in 1962 by freeing about 10,000 slaves out of an estimated 15,000-30,000, the practice of human trafficking is still rife in the country. In 2006, Saudi Arabia was designated by the U-S Department of State as a ‘Tier 3’ country. 

The US Department of States Trafficking Persons Report states: "Saudi Arabia is a destination for men and women from South and East Asia and East Africa trafficked for the purpose of labor exploitation, and for children from Yemen , Afghanistan , and Africa trafficking for forced begging. Hundreds of thousands of low-skilled workers from India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Kenya migrate voluntarily to Saudi Arabia; some fall into conditions of involuntary servitude, suffering from physical and sexual abuse, non-payment or delayed payment of wages, the withholding of travel documents, restrictions on their freedom of movement and non-consensual contract alterations. The Government of Saudi Arabia does not comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Saudi Arabia has moved from Tier 2 to Tier 3 because of its lack of progress in anti-trafficking efforts, particularly its failure to protect victims and prosecute those guilty of involuntary servitude."

Saudi Arabia (also UAE and other pumping-stations-turned-states in the Gulf) continue to use child slaves as camel jockeys. Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, an international human and civil rights organization, has been instrumental in freeing hundreds of Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani children who were smuggled to Saudi Arabia (also UAE and other pumping-stations-turned-states in the Gulf) to work as jockeys. "The children are underfed to reduce their weights, in order to lighten the load on the camel." 

Whereas the existing Islamic laws forbid the mistreatment of women, children, and laborers [slaves], the Saudi regime does not enforce these laws.

[Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE are also designated as 'Tier 3’ countries. Runaway girls and boys are also trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. They are reportedly auctioned regularly, especially in UAE—another morally bankrupt state.] 

With ‘friends’ like these, how many more enemies could America afford?

In the wake of Mr. Bush’s failure to usher in democracy to Saudi Arabia (and other pumping-stations-turned-states in the Gulf), it is now up to the good people of Arabia to flush their corrupt and deviant kings, sultans, emirs, and viziers to the cesspool of history, or else the history would judge them very harshly. The people of Arabia must assume collective responsibility for their most precious natural capital, or face the fatal consequences of allowing cheap oil destroy the ecosystems.

We have demonstrated that the political economy together with the cabal appointed politicians, chrematists, academics, scholars and ‘experts’ who continue to advocate an exponential growth culture (designed to manipulate property and short-term monetary exchange values) have failed stupendously to address the most basic needs of human community and protect our precious life base, Earth. They have achieved completely the opposite: The economic system has driven the ecosystems to the verge of imminent collapse; humans and many other animal species now face extinction.

For anyone who still fails to see the picture, here is an illustration by the way of a famous French riddle for children: We have a pond on which water lilies grow doubling in number everyday. It takes 30 days for the lilies to cover the pond completely and suffocate the fish and other life forms in the water.

On what day do we forfeit our last chance to react? The answer, of course, is the 29th day because on the following day, the 30th day, the lilies double for the last time and completely cover the pond.

Exponential systems, like the economic growth culture, do not allow much reaction time. The problem may not seem strikingly obvious for a long time. As late as the 24th day, for example, the lilies cover only 1/64th of the pond and on the 25th day 1/32nd—a seemingly insignificant portion of the pond. Even on the 29th day one-half of the pond still looks deceptively safe.

We have now reached the final hours in the '29th day' of Earth’s ecological system capacity. Our exponentially growing ecological footprint has pushed at least 15 of the 24 ecosystems (about 2/3 of all ecosystems) vital for supporting life to the verge of collapse including fresh water, fisheries, air and water purification systems, and the systems that regulate climate, natural hazards and pests.

This is our last chance to react. Tomorrow is the 30th day—the lilies cover our pond completely and choke us all to death.

To create a semblance of a chance for our children, we must stop the ecological carnage by immediately adopting a large-scale community management program that would include the ecosystems, air, water, food, land and energy as well as humans and other life forms. The program must take long-term views of costs and benefits to the entire life community and offer the small fraction of our progeny who might survive the ecological cataclysm a fighting chance.

If humanity lacks the skill, strength and the courage to accomplish the vital feat of social engineering needed to save life on this planet 

1. Impeach and incarcerate a few evil men who are destroying the future;
2. Adopt an economic system for the community to prevent ecocide (possibly omnicide);
3. Establish a comprehensive rescue plan to save at least a fraction of the next generations;

Gentle readers, it would be highly improbable that we could perform such housekeeping tasks on any of Prof. Hawking's imaginary planets.

by Harry Saloor
March 2007

EoF.