German military report: Peak oil could lead to collapse of democracy

[Subdivisions]

It's been a looooong time since I made a peak oil OP on DU because they just don't fly here. People don't want to think about it. Others want to deny it. Well now there is a report on Peak Oil from the German Bundeswehr that is alarming, to say the least. This follows shortly on the heels of a http://www.google.com/search?q=U.S.+military+peak+oil&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GGLR_en&prmd=n&source=univ&tbs=nws:1&tbo=u&ei=DR2ATIKxPMOAlAeDx-nIDg&sa=X&oi=news_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CC0QsQQwAw">U.S. military report and a http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7GGLR_en&q=The%20Oil%20Crunch%3A%20a%20Wake-up%20Call%20for%20the%20UK%20Economy&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=nw">UK business leaders report warning about the coming Peak Oil crisis.

From The Raw Story:

Peak oil has happened or will happen some time around this year, and its consequences could threaten the continued survival of democratic governments, says a secret Germany military report that was leaked online.

According to Der Spiegel, the report from a think-tank inside the German military warns that shrinking global oil supplies will threaten the world's economic foundations and possibly lead to mass-scale upheaval within the next 15 to 30 years.

International trade would suffer as the cost of transporting goods across oceans would soar, resulting in "shortages in the supply of vital goods," the report states, as translated by Der Spiegel.

The result would be the collapse of the industrial supply chain. "In the medium term the global economic system and every market-oriented national economy would collapse," the report states.

...snip...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/0901/german-report-peak-oil-collapse-democracy/

That bolded part sure seems familiar...

Anyways, here's the story at Spiegel Online: http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,715138,00.html

Is this still a non-issue which deserves continued indifference and dismissal?


Edited to add: Here is the actual report in German http://peak-oil.com/download/Peak%20Oil.%20Sicherheitspolitische%20Implikationen%20knapper%20Ressourcen%2011082010.pdf

[Swamp Rat]

1. It already has... Most folks just don't realize it yet, except the Iraqis and Afghanis, for example

[Subdivisions]

3. You're right, Swampy. Global oil production has been declining since 2005

yet everyone goes about their business as usual. There a huge cliff out there somewhere and we're already catapulting toward it on a downhill slope.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. I think most people just don't believe how big a change it will force on us.

They believe that, at the last minute, someone will ride in with a magic fairy dust that replaces oil with no fuss, no muss, and no pollution. They believe that we will slide easily into solar power, or some other form of easy energy.

[Subdivisions]

5. No one even ever considers the fact that, in order to build a renewable energy infrastructure,

oil is essential until that system can take over the work, from oil, of sustaining itself. In other words, no oil, no renewable energy infrastructure.

[Ozymanithrax]

6. Most of our food is watered by irrigation.

Irrigation requires oil to pump the water.

The majority of the farms in the Imperial Valley in California would be lost. That is just one small part that needs fixing.

Our entire civilization is based on cheap, easily available oil.

[Subdivisions]

8. From the report:

Oil is used directly or indirectly in the production of 95% of all industrial goods.

95%!

Think about that. And then think about oil being a FINITE resource.

[damntexdem]

4. In the U.S., the collapse of democracy could lead to the end of democracy.

Peak oil will just be icing on that shit-cake.

[izquierdista]

7. What won't collapse?

Subsistence economies

Here's the future for you!

[AndyA]

9. This is another good reason to put the brakes on importing, and start making things here again.

Build factories that run on renewable energy sources that don't pollute. Want to talk about job creation?

Tell Walmart, Toyota, Honda, etc., no thanks on your imported crap. We'll buy American goods, made by American workers, working for American companies.

Stop the incentives for American companies to leave the country to create jobs and build factories. Impose a tariff or inspection fee on imported goods to ensure their safety, taking away their price advantage over American goods.

Stop NAFTA and all its siblings, as quite obviously it's not good for America, or American jobs.

Give people tax breaks for not owning an automobile, and using public transportation. Mandate that local governments syncronize stop lights for maximum flow of traffic, minimizing delays and the waste of fuel.

That's just for starters, there are a lot of other things that could be done. The country that moves on this first will be the one to profit the most from it. Making stuff overseas and then shipping it over here is a huge waste of natural resources.

[lefthandedlefty]

10. All good points plus

We need to mandate that all new and repaired traffic signals and street lights need to be solar powered.

[Subdivisions]

11. Also a good point. They're already doing it with a lot of

school zone and crossing equipment.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

12. Indeed.

As democracy was invented by a team of engineers working for Standard Oil in 1903, it seems unlikely that democracy could exist without the abundance of cheap gasoline.