In a World Short Of Oil, Provisions Must Be Made

[valuesystem]

In a World Short Of Oil, Provisions Must Be Made
Mr. Wissner of Middleville Stocks Up on Rice, Gold; No Faith in a 'Techno Fix'

Wall Street Journal; Page A1
January 26, 2008
By NEIL KING JR.

MIDDLEVILLE, Mich. -- It was around midnight one evening in November when Aaron Wissner shot up in bed, jolted awake by a fear: He wasn't fully ready for the

Comments

[valuesystem]

First off, I haven't given all that many talks, probably around a half-dozen. I was quite busy last year with the baby, and with other career obligations. This year is the big year for me, but I actually plan to do more film screenings than talking myself, although I'd much prefer (for my ego) to do the later.

If you can, attend a peak oil conference somewhere. There are lots of folks thinking along the lines that you are, as far as what people plane to do.

As far as advice to the executives and political types, they all need to understand two things:

1. Oil is a non-renewable, limited, finite resource, which is about to go into decline, with no easy substitute, in a world entirely dependent upon it for practically everything; and that

2. Money is simply a tool with which to direct the expenditure of energy, and that with a decline both the quantity and quality of energy, money is going to shift in value in very remarkable and unprecedented ways.

With these two facts in mind, and with some logical thinking, and time to do that thinking, the answers start to appear. It would depend a lot on the exact business. Some businesses are already "critical endangered". Others will be able to adjust to the inevitable cycle of recessions that are coming. Already, many that depended on basically free natural gas have closed (fertilizer plants). So, it will depend on the company, and how oil figures in to their product.

As far as political types, it is time for some visionary thinking. If we get stuck in focusing on what is going to happen during my short term of office, we are in very bad shape. Peak oil is going to play out over years, decades, and without some serious, in-depth, honest, frank, and maybe scary long term planning, nothing substantial will be accomplished, and in fact, the efforts may be exactly the opposite to what we need... for example "oil shale" and "hydrogen fuel" and "nuclear fusion" had better not get funded; it is a total waste of the remaining high quality energy we have available.