Ordc Forum/Blog

When demand for oil consistently surpasses supply, experts warn that our lives will look "very differently".
Dahr Jamail Last Modified: 25 Jul 2011 13:21

"We're going to see major changes in industrial civilisation ... anything with a parking lot is going to be in trouble" [EPA]

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by Eric Zencey

The government of Minnesota has shut down thanks to a $5 billion budget gap. Wisconsin public employees have been de-unionized so their salaries and benefits can be cut to close a budget gap. New Jersey just missed shutting down as a Democratic legislature and a Republican governor agreed that austerity cuts are needed (though there’s still going to be some wrangling over how the pain will be distributed). Last week the Italian cabinet signed off on $68 billion in austerity cuts. Demonstrations in Britain and riots in Athens, prompted by government cuts in pensions and social security, suggest what may lie in Italy’s future. In the U.S., we’ve got gridlock-and-extortion in Congress over raising the federal debt limit, even as both sides are generally agreed that the era of ever-rising deficits is over.

Though not a single politician or mainstream economic analyst has ever made the connection, the new worldwide austerity in public spending traces to a physical cause, as measured by change in EROI — energy return on energy invested.

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Many say that our war in Afghanistan is really about Pakistan. If so, this is bad news for stability there.
Jul 8, 2011
AsiaTimes: http://www.atimes.co...a/MG08Df04.html

Pakistanis' anger mounts over growing power chaos
By Syed Fazl-e-Haider

KARACHI - Public anger is growing at the Pakistan government's failure to ensure adequate power supplies for industrial and private use, with two people killed and more than 30 wounded by police this week when a crowd of about 8,000 marched towards Chashma Nuclear Power Plant in Mianwali, Punjab province.

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