It happened once that a certain Thomas Abbens, or Abbena, reputed to be the wisest man in Europe at that time, was summoned to the court of a young Walachian prince. "I'm in need of a shrewd advisor," the prince informed him. "My subjects are unruly, my enemies ambitious, my sons disobedient, and my wife deceitful. Yet it may be that I will master them all, with your help."
"I'll gladly help you," Abbens replied, "but as a teacher, not as an advisor. We must review your education and remedy its manifest deficiencies."
But the prince sent the wise man away, saying, "It's not my education that troubles me but rather my subjects, my enemies, my sons, and my wife."
A score of years passed before the prince once again summoned Abbens to his side. "I bitterly regret," he said, "that I declined the proposal you made to me, but there's no time to accept it now, for the situation is desperate. My subjects plot against me, my enemies encroach at will upon our lands, my sons defy me before their friends, and my wife contrives to alienate what few allies I have left. Guide me through this crisis with your wisdom, then there'll be time to remedy the deficiencies you perceive in my education."
The wise man shook his head and replied, "What you're asking is that I become prince to your subjects, warrior to your enemies, father to your sons, and husband to your wife. How can this possibly save you? You must learn to become these things yourself, and even a feeble beginning is better than none at all."
But the prince sent Abbens away a second time, saying, "If you won't help me in this hour of crisis, then I must seek one who will."
When Abbens next met the prince, a decade later, he was a prince no longer but only a beggar in the streets of Budapest.
"It happened a year ago," the former prince explained. "Because my subjects were in open rebellion, my sons conspired to seize the throne. And my enemies, informed of the conspiracy by my treacherous wife, chose this opportunity to fall upon us. But perhaps some good may yet come of these calamities, for, if you will share it with me, I am at least now free to avail myself of the wisdom I formerly rejected."
But Abbens replied: "The catastrophe that wisdom might have averted has already befallen you. Of what use is wisdom to you now?"
This fable stood as an introduction to Part Two of The Book of Nahash. The decade that has passed since its writing has served to exemplify and underscore its moral. Like the prince's crisis, the environmental crisis that we were facing in 1981 has deepened by now--and will continue to deepen for as long as people would rather endure any catastrophe than give up the right to live catastrophically.
We've already burned through almost half the world's supply of oil. How will we ride out the slide down the other side of Hubbert's Curve? For more information, go to: http://thefuelfilm.com/ ,http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse , and
A Quick 3 minute video visually explaining Peak Oil, what oil is used for, and what the future may hold with regards to Peak Oil.
This is the culmination of my year-long thesis project looking at how Graphic Design can help communicate a complex topic such as Peak Oil.
This animated map is an excerpt from a conference presentation by Randy Park. It shows the peaking of oil production (peak oil) for countries around the world. It also shows oil consumption.
Video of World Oil Consumption by Country represented as foot height per barrel per day according to CIA Factbook. Rendered in Google Earth
A well known 52 minute documentary on peak oil
"We're literally stuck up a cul-de-sac in a cement SUV without a fill-up" - James Howard Kunstler
Global oil peak and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of the future? This is a short version of "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of The American Dream", a documentary about the end of the age of cheap oil.
The complete 78-minute version of The End of Suburbia is available on DVD at www.endofsuburbia.com. If you own the DVD, you are welcome to screen it to live audiences without permission, as long as it is not for profit.
Discussion and debate are welcome in the "Comments & Responses" section.
Crash Course: Chapter 17a
Chapter 17a - Peak Oil: Energy is the lifeblood of any economy and a steady supply of energy is necessary to maintain the status quo, while an ever-increasing supply is needed to grow an economy. In this chapter, Dr. Chris Martenson explains that Peak Oil is not a theory, rather it is a description of how oil production increases over time, reaches a peak, then declines. Evidence points to a global production peak in the near future, which is troubling since the U.S. imports two-thirds of its oil and relies on it to much of its transportation and food production needs.
( with subtitles)
Richard Heinberg:
An abbreviated history of fossil fuels
More : http://www.postcarbon.org/
Nicole Foss
In the third video in the series "Peak Oil and a Changing Climate" from The Nation and On The Earth productions, co-editor of The Automatic Earth, Nicole M. Foss, explains how energy relates to the economy and what our impending energy crisis will look like. Foss discusses the issues associated with peak oil in financial rather than environmental terms, because she finds that peak oil has much more to do with finance than it does with climate change.
Foss talks about what she calls a "false positive feedback loop," which involves optimism leading to "caution being thrown to the wind." When this happens, Foss believes that people become angry. Succumbing to fear and anger might lead to engagement in destructive behavior, which would make it harder for society to confront peak oil and climate change.
Reacting to former vice president Dick Cheney, who once said "the American way of life is not negotiable," Foss says, "That's true because reality is not going to negotiate with you."
For more videos in the series, visit www.TheNation.com