The Largest Minority

February 18th, 2009 by Manila Ryce

Produced by Democracy Now!, Noam Chomsky addresses the international press at the United Nations on June 5th, 2006 while taking the liberty to slap the shit out of a few of the dolts.

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October 6th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

This is the Pathfinder column from the October 2008 issue of the Socialist Standard

Oil is the super-fuel. Nothing else does all the things oil does, from heating, fuel, plastics, food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and clothing. It has the highest energy conversion rate of any fuel and it constitutes 40 percent of global traded energy and 90 percent of transport (Financial Times, 4 January, 2004). But aside from its contribution to global warming, it’s also running out.

Or so we are told. Despite the record rise of oil recently, this is mainly speculator-driven and not due to any real shortage of oil. What is running out is cheap oil. In fact the world has only used 15 per cent of known reserves, with at least another 20 per cent recoverable by today’s technology (BBC Online, 21 April 21, 2004). Though pundits talk about hitting peak oil, estimates for this turning point range from already to as far away as 2050. As supply diminishes and prices rise, more expensive options like the Canadian and Venezuelan tar sands, with capacities rivaling Saudi Arabia, will become profitable to extract. But the rise in costs will be mirrored by a rise in the price of everything dependent on oil, and for the world’s poorest billion people, this could be a sentence of death by starvation, with a likely proliferation of food rioting, instability in liberal democracies and an upsurge in the ruling class’s faithful stand-by, fascist repression. Meanwhile, as the stakes rise, so do the international tensions. Oil is already determining many countries’ domestic and foreign policy, and few people doubt its role in recent wars. Governments are increasingly jumpy. Oil production plants, and bottleneck sea-lanes, are particularly susceptible to guerrilla attack, and with no in-house reserves Europe or America could be reduced to chaos in weeks (New Scientist, 28 June). Worse still, the ruling elites’ increasing inability to keep their oil-starved military up to scratch may make wars more likely rather than less, as weakened capability could provoke opportunistic pre-emptive attacks by rivals.

Socialism faces a rather different problem. It is predicated on communal sharing and participation, which in turn rely on the fact of material sufficiency. Should anything threaten this sufficiency, the basis of socialism itself would be threatened. Today, for example, over 50 percent of world rural populations have no access to electricity (UNDP World Energy Assessment, 2000). Though not a problem to capitalism, which doesn’t care about non-effective, i.e. non-paying demand (for more on this see page 19, this will be of the first importance in socialism. Even allowing for waste reduction in the west, that electricity must be found.

There is no single alternative to oil, so a suite of alternatives will have to be employed. Of the non-renewables, gas won’t last much longer than oil, and coal, the chief source of electricity globally, though there is up to 250 years worth at present usage, is dirty stuff to burn. Carbon capture technology may mitigate this, but is at an early stage.

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August 18th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Two solar power plants in California will produce 12 times the amount of electricity of current plants, the companies said.

The OptiSolar plant slated for San Luis Obispo County, will produce 550 megawatts, The New York Times reported Friday. A SunPower Corp. installation, also slated for the same county, will produce about 250 megawatts, the Times said.

Combined, the two installations will cover 12.5 square miles and produce as much power as a small nuclear power plant, the Times reported.

“If you’re going to make a difference, you’ve got to do it big,” Chief Executive Officer of OptiSolar Randy Goldstein told the newspaper.

The operations will push solar power into a new era, industry analysts said. The largest solar power plant currently in operation in the United States produces 14 megawatts at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Spain has a 23-megawatt solar installation and Germany is constructing a 40-megawatt plant.

A plant called Nevada Solar One is not the largest, but uses mirrors to concentrate sunlight and generates 64 megawatts of power, the report said.

source

August 3rd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Greenpeace wants to give you a green piece of that ass.

August 2nd, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Barack is selling out the lives of future generations to big oil. I wish I could say this most recent flip-flop surprises me or that he’s become a disappointment.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Friday he would be willing to support limited additional offshore oil drilling if that’s what it takes to enact a comprehensive policy to foster fuel-efficient autos and develop alternate energy sources.

Shifting from his previous opposition to expanded offshore drilling, the Illinois senator told a Florida newspaper he could get behind a compromise with Republicans and oil companies to prevent gridlock over energy…

…”The Republicans and the oil companies have been really beating the drums on drilling,” Obama said in the Post interview. “And so we don’t want gridlock. We want to get something done.”

Later, Obama issued a written statement warmly welcoming a proposal sent to Senate leaders Friday by 10 senators — five from each party. Their proposal seeks to break the impasse over offshore oil development and is expected to be examined more closely in September after Congress returns from its summer recess.

The so-called Gang of 10 plan would lift drilling bans in the eastern Gulf of Mexico within 50 miles of Florida’s beaches and in the South Atlantic off Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, but only if a state agrees to the oil and gas development along its coast. The states would share in revenues from oil and gas development.

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Rather than adhere to the democratic principle that representatives work for us and must represent our interests as public servants, Obama recently told a group of Uhuru News activists who asked “Why is it you have not had the courtesy for one time to speak on interests of the oppressed and exploited black community in this nation?” that his answer wasn’t going to “satisfy their positions” and that they could always vote for someone else. It’s that kind of pompous attitude which shows Democrats take our votes for granted.

When you can’t even address the American people with the same kind of willingness that you do towards AIPAC, there’s a big fucking problem. Barack’s challenge for liberals to look elsewhere suggests that he’s not fearful of losing votes for selling us out to corporations. He’s relying on the notion that liberals will ultimately need to vote for him once they realize they have nowhere else to go. Unfortunately for him, enough of us do know where to go - towards third parties and independents. Obama never gives us a seat at his theoretic table where he brings together Republicans and corporations in order to “get things done”. Liberals who support Obama are just as guilty of selling themselves out as the morons in Middle America who supported Bush the last two elections against their own interests.

July 20th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

Venezuelan oil company Citgo, together with the Citizen’s Energy organization, will be providing about 460,000 energy efficient light bulbs to low-income US households. Venezuela’s Ambassador to the US said, “This program is a counterpart to our efforts in Venezuela, where more than 60 million conventional light bulbs have been replaced by energy efficient ones through Misión Revolución Energética.”

The U.S. project will start as a pilot program in communities that already receive discounted heating oil from Citgo throughout the U.S. Communities in the energy-saving light bulb pilot project include Washington, D.C.; Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas; Lamont, Illinois; and Lake Charles, Louisiana, where Citgo refineries operate. It will also be implemented in low-income communities in Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, Milwaukee, Madison, and Minneapolis.

source

July 15th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

We have an unhealthy addiction to oil which will eventually kill us if we don’t quit now. So what should we do? Obviously, drill for more in the hopes that our dependence will become more affordable. It’s like when you go to a treatment center for your meth addiction and they teach you how to make the stuff cheaper at home. What? Making a problem worse doesn’t solve the problem? Ah shit, then can we try the last 8 years over again?

President Bush lifted an executive order banning offshore oil drilling on Monday and urged Congress to follow suit.

Citing the high prices Americans are paying at the pump, Bush said from the White House Rose Garden that allowing offshore oil drilling is “one of the most important steps we can take” to reduce that burden.

However, the move is largely symbolic as there is also a federal law banning offshore drilling.

“This means that the only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil reserves is action from the U.S. Congress,” Bush said.

Bush has been pushing Congress to repeal the law passed in 1981.

“There is no excuse for delay,” the president said in a Rose Garden statement last month.

“In the short run, the American economy will continue to rely largely on oil, and that means we need to increase supply here at home,” Bush said, adding that there is no more pressing issue for many Americans than gas prices.

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July 11th, 2008 by Manila Ryce

I think the end of the URL at the source says it all: “funny=not”.

The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.”

He then punched the air while grinning widely, as the rest of those present including Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock.

Mr Bush, whose second and final term as President ends at the end of the year, then left the meeting at the Windsor Hotel in Hokkaido where the leaders of the world’s richest nations had been discussing new targets to cut carbon emissions.

One official who witnessed the extraordinary scene said afterwards: “Everyone was very surprised that he was making a joke about America’s record on pollution.”

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