James - 1.05

13:06

Cut short because Alison was feeling really unwell.

So it's royal wedding day and that means one thing: I am PISSED OFF! Now, I know it's off topic, but I have written an article that I'd like you guys to see. It is about the intersection of the energy and peak oil crisis, and the royal family. For one thing, you're smart people. For another, you appreciate being able to get around without internal combustion engines. I'd love to know what you think.

Trading Bluebloods for Oil

Why anti-Monarchist activists and peak oilers should care about one another's campaigns

"Unfortunately, the media coverage wasn’t quite that which is given to your average Royal engagement (or even 1%). And on the surface, perhaps that’s fair. We learn when we are children that oil is a finite resource. Those interested in peak oil have always known that the exact time of the peak wouldn’t be obvious until years after it happened, and a casual look at the data since 2006 made it pretty clear that we were probably already very close to the stage of decline. But the Paris-based IEA is a conservative and restrained body. Its coupling of the announcement with absurd reassurances that tar sands and other polluting and pathetic technologies would keep economic growth trundling along for a few more decades is proof of that. For this organisation to finally give us a specific date in the face of its usual policy of trying to keep everyone calm (and in the dark), was a sobering moment. This world-changing problem took on a solid form.

The fantasy world of energy resources is mirrored in the fantasy world of the Wills and Kate wedding. Politicians and newspapers invited us to escape our economic woes by living vicariously through them and their Disneyfied lives. Despite the fact that it is actually they who are living through us on their taxpayer-funded special day, it is tempting to buy into this logic – what’s wrong with a little innocent escapism? The problem is that the Royal establishment is using this once-in-a-generation event to revitalise a positive image of themselves as saviours of the nation, at a time when dissenting questions regarding their place in the world are increasing."

If you don't like how LJ looks to read you can read an altered version here: http://transitionvoice.com/2011/04/trading-bluebloods-for-oil/