[CS-FSLUG] Rhetoric vs actions in regard to oil shortages, present and future.

[Fred A. Miller]

From a friend of mine.........VERY alarming, yet accurate, I think.

Fred
_________________________

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/012505_ftw_maps_summary.shtml

"Farming is just a way of using land to convert OIL into 
FOOD" -- Dr. Bartlett 
-- , Forgotten Fundamentals of the Energy Crisis

I was teaching at Clarks, NE when the first version of Dr. 
Bartlett's paper which was presented at an energy 
conference at the University of Missouri at Rolla in 
October 1976, where it appears in the Proceedings of the 
Conference.  I obtained a copy of it in November and 
immediately realized its significance.  I have been 
following the topic of energy consumption every since.  To 
truely appreciate the oil shortage problem you should read 
the following URL:
http://www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/ert/symposium/bartlett/bartlett.html

The URL at the top of this email describes recent behavior 
of oil companies and governments in relation to oil 
discoveries and production... these activities have, for 
all practical purposes,  ceased.  This will lead to 
$200/bbl oil and $7/gal for gasoline within a few years.
You may not have realized it but we literally eat oil.  When 
you eat a slice of bread the energy you get from it is only 
1/10th the energy in oil it took to get that slice to your 
breakfast table.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100303_eating_oil.html

"What follows is most certainly the single most frightening 
article I have ever read and certainly the most alarming 
piece that FTW has ever published. Even as we have seen 
CNN, Britain's Independent and Jane's Defence Weekly 
acknowledge the reality of Peak Oil and Gas within the last 
week, acknowledging that world oil and gas reserves are as 
much as 80% less than predicted, we are also seeing how 
little real thinking has been devoted to the host of crises 
certain to follow; at least in terms of publicly accessible 
thinking.
....
In the United States, 400 gallons of oil equivalents are 
expended annually to feed each American (as of data 
provided in 1994)
....
In their refined study, Giampietro and Pimentel found that 
10 kcal of exosomatic energy are required to produce 1 kcal 
of food delivered to the consumer in the U.S. food system. 
This includes packaging and all delivery expenses, but 
excludes household cooking).20 The U.S. food system 
consumes ten times more energy than it produces in food 
energy. This disparity is made possible by nonrenewable 
fossil fuel stocks. 


Assuming a figure of 2,500 kcal per capita for the daily 
diet in the United States, the 10/1 ratio translates into a 
cost of 35,000 kcal of exosomatic energy per capita each 
day. However, considering that the average return on one 
hour of endosomatic labor in the U.S. is about 100,000 kcal 
of exosomatic energy, the flow of exosomatic energy 
required to supply the daily diet is achieved in only 20 
minutes of labor in our current system. Unfortunately, if 
you remove fossil fuels from the equation, the daily diet 
will require 111 hours of endosomatic labor per capita; 
that is, the current U.S. daily diet would require nearly 
three weeks of labor per capita to produce.


Quite plainly, as fossil fuel production begins to decline 
within the next decade, there will be less energy available 
for the production of food."

-- 
The only bug free software from MickySoft is still shrink-wrapped
in their warehouse..."