Oil wars and global warming

1 Fossil Fuel War continues in the Middle East

Fighting words were spoken in fine speeches by the Australian Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition today in the Australian Parliament, (22nd September 2014) on the deployment of Australian defense forces, including the air force, to the Middle East, to return to the battleground of middle eastern oil fields.

In these role-inspired justifications of war against the usual terrorist suspects, the barbarity of the enemy was highlighted, as well as the nobility of our own society, and that of our allies. This is always the case, prior to the infliction of even greater escalations of barbarity using deadly weapons. The victor, as always, will be the most technologically effective barbarian. War is barbarity.

ISIS, or the self called Islamic State is the latest result of barbarity in an on-going civil-tribal-oil-religious conflict in the region. It has arisen in the context of a failed Iraq State, the results of failed foreign interventions, and incurable Sunni- Shia conflict, and a history of tribal retributive violence, all mixed up with oil politics.

1.1 Oil well control

The stakes in this current round of oil poker, are the oil fields in Iraq and Syria which are now controlled by IS. Their production rates are relatively low, and export transport, and market price are problems, but all profits go to funding ISIS.[1] In what remains of Iraq, Oil production contracts ensured profits went to the corporate victors of the previous Iraq War and occupation. ISIS has muscled in on what the global big oil mafia regard as their very own, and so our oil dependent governments must go to war. So our forces will try to blast away at the fires of conflict in the middle east, which are publicly justified by reference to the inhumanity of the desperate. Who is really the most desperate?

The Oil export supply lines of ISIS are vulnerable to air power. Our mobilization includes massive air power. Behind our global oil war strategy is a moneyocrazy controlling our oil dependent national governments. Air power as the most technological barbaric force is certain to win the oil war, but cannot put out the insurgency fires.

1.2 Making more enemies

There is little ability to stop the ideas infection, its adherents, arms and memes, which spread growing chaos and instability to other middle east nations, and even back to the oil coalition nations.[2] The sources of infection are already widespread and are external, and are sponsored from our own memes of nationalism, capitalism and fossil fuel wealth control. The destabilization of Syria by rebel groups was sponsored from the US through Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern states, in order to create the present crisis.

1.3 Refugees

ISIS threatens Syria to real effect, as it initially was designed to do. A large stream of refugees is pouring into Turkey from Northern Syria. Maybe some are already refugees from the previous Iraq war, which contributed to the difficulties of the Syrian government. The refugees of homeless, injured and dispossessed are always the final result state of our meddling and wars, and their growing numbers every year attest to global failure. The war sponsors pay very little towards long term refugee resettlement and care needs that arise because of their sponsorship of destruction. [4]

2 Who drives the money flow for the oil wars?

It seems the ISIS crisis was created by and for the US, as State sponsored terrorism, so that the USA can have a permanent intervention excuse, in order to add to its strategic collection of permanent empire bases.[1]

The virus of state sponsored terror, and the cancer of state sponsored military corporations justify each others growth, and are funded from the same sources, and even use the same armaments. Unintentional consequences far outnumber intended ones with intervention actions in the middle east. There is no need to step up homeland security to keep out the terrorists. The enemy is not ISIS, it is us. That is the money flow from where the terrorists and the weapons came from.[2] IS obtained additional US weapons from Iraq territory gains after already being well supplied for victory.

Who drives the the flow of money into state sponsored terror and insurgency, and the funding of the military-corporate weapons industry and its consumers?

The future of our global oil addiction will be historically brief. By 2050, global oil supply will have fallen to half what it is now. Consider that 40% of current global diesel fuel production is used in coal mining and transport, and its supply will add to the economic costs of coal mining. The future has many dangerous circumstances of global population growth with reduced food from climate change, water and resource loss. Inequality and politicals as usual assure a rising desperation to match rising sea levels. Global oil depletion is not solvable by war. On the contrary, global oil depletion is the best possible outcome for our climate future.

2.1 Economic growth as fossil fuel emissions

Almost simultaneously, at a G20 finance meeting in Cairns in Queensland Australia, the biggest addicts of global oil set a target of 2% global growth rate. This to be continued at all costs by the leaders of our cancerous, hungry civilization. We are already gobbling up the remainder of our biosphere. In our already full and grossly unequal world, all economic growth is likely to benefit only the desperately wealthy, in their age of final entitlement. This growth target exists while civilization is undergoing a process of accelerating devaluation decay. Nature is declining all over the biosphere. Human infrastructure cannot be maintained at the rate it was developed.

2.2 Unhealthy size of global civilization

More growth leads to crises in finance and wealth distribution. Wealth of the middle classes appears to be declining in developed nations like the USA. Public social capital diminishing, with decreased funding for health, education and welfare. Our notional global growth rates cannot keep up with the rates of overall civilization decay. In essence, a degrowth strategy is the writing on the wall for our species, whether we like it or not. Better a deliberate adaptive degrowth for our strivings for consumption and population than a forced destruction and decay strategy.

Either our leaders are not capable of public honesty or our politicians are only capable of half-think. (How can they possibly manage double-think, as George Orwell would have it?). Every politician gets elected on promises of growth bringing more jobs and prosperity. Of necessity, our civilization must diminish in size and impact before it is too late.

We can still support a scientific and literate civilization, if we value it. its about time we changed our goals and methods. Given the unshakable connection of GDP to carbon emissions, and that increasing GDP does not bring more happiness, it is past time to shrink global GDP. Our yearly global footprint and take from nature is far beyond nature’s capacity to fully regenerate.

2.3 Fossil Fuel money blocks climate change action

Who benefits most from the flows of resources, money and power, and the energy that drives our fossil fueled economies? The answer should be a non-surprise. It is the wealthy owners of large fossil fuel corporations. Their money controls the decisions of US government, the largest military power on our planet. This process is summarized in the Greenpeace report “Kingpins of Carbon”. [5]

Incumbents in the USA government are dependent on fossil fuel corporate funding. So are the Judges in the supreme court of the USA. They follow a single, simple agenda:

Prevent Congress from taking action to mitigate global warming;
Eliminate all remaining restrictions on money in federal and state elections for legislators and judges, allowing totally-secret, unrestricted donations;
Cut taxes to starve and shrink government, to keep it ineffective;
Eliminate regulations that protect the environment, and, finally,
Crush labor unions and reverse the victories of the civil rights movement.

The greenpeace report says the self-interested plutocrats are polluting both our environment and our democracy.

There are some disturbing similar features in the agenda of the conservative coalition government in Australia. Government appointees to review renewable energy targets are publicly avowed global warming denialists. The influence of the coal lobby on Australian government policy has been well documented.[6] The result has been strenuous attempts to stymie mitigation of global warming, including the reversal of a carbon tax. Australian political parties are reluctant to have laws regulating political donations. The Australian government very eagerly signs up to the USA middle east oil war agenda.

Upton Sinclair wrote these lines, which are true to our times:
"It’s difficult to get a man to understand something if his salary depends upon his not understanding it."

“One of the necessary accompaniments of capitalism in a democracy is political corruption”.

2.4 Death by Carbon emissions is not a necessity

As the Australian Beyond Zero Emissions group is proving with its multiple technology reports on all economic sectors, we can have civilization and much lower carbon emissions. We can transition to from high to low carbon emissions here and now, using existing best practice and technology.[8] Once embarked upon, a low carbon pollution society gains in momentum, with many system synergies and makes public health, social and economic sense.[9] It is a fatal mistake to assume that a fossil fuel energy based civilization is our only possible global civilization, and represents our only possible relationship of humans to nature. It is case of passing over the investment and educational “hill”, to get to the promised low carbon society. There is also a matter of massive reduction of nature’s capacity to absorb our pollution, and global depletion of resources, as predicted in “Limits to Growth”.

Our current relationships with nature are overly represented by massive vested corporate interests in fossil fuel wealth, who deny climate change, and deny the ill effects of fossil fuel energy on our economy and democracy. It is in our own interest to challenge their power over our politicians.[7]

2.5 Positive signs that a renewable energy transition is happening

China is taking steps to wean itself off dirty coal burning for energy.
Renewable technology is several decades mature, and its capital manufacturing infrastructure is growing.
Climate change awareness is growing amoungst investors, that more than two thirds of reported fossil fuel resources cannot be burned, and are hence of no value.
Investors are switching to renewable energy.
Conservative political parties are denying global warming is man-made, are sending warriors to the middle east, and fighting renewable energy tooth and nail.

References

[1] The “State Sponsors” of ISIS, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey. http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-state-sponsors-of-isis-saudi-arabia-qatar-turkey-why-are-they-no-subjected-to-sanctions/5403310

[2] Dem Rep: 40 American ISIL Fighters Have Already Returned to the United States. http://freebeacon.com/national-security/dem-rep-40-american-isil-fighters-have-already-returned-to-the-united-states/

[3] Turkey closes borders as 130,000 Syrians flee ISIS. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2764819/100-000-Syrians-flee-Isis-onslaught-terrorist-group-targets-innocents-stolen-tanks-artillery-rocket-launchers.html

[4] Refugees of Iraq. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refugees_of_Iraq

[5] Kingpins of Carbon. http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/Kingpins-of-Carbon.pdf

[6] Big Coal: Australia’s Dirtiest Habit. https://www.newsouthbooks.com.au/books/big-coal/

[7] America’s Pathetic, Negligent Energy Policy. http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/18/americas-pathetic-negligent-energy-policy/

[8] Beyond Zero Emissions. http://bze.org.au/

[9] Sustainable Energy Solutions for climate change. http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/7308.htm

[10] ‘Limits to Growth’ vindicated: World headed towards economic, environmental collapse. http://rt.com/news/185168-limits-to-growth-updated-models/

[11] We have met the enemy, and he is us. http://www.igopogo.com/we_have_met.htm

author:

Michael Rynn

description:

Everything is connected. Our fossil fuel dependent civilization, global warming, and the wars for oil in the middle east.