The Intensifying Global Struggle for Energy

A decade ago I was arguing with my college professors over what China would mean to us in the coming years. For some reason, they could not see the forest for the trees - China as an adversary.

China is a growing giant - not unlike the USA - and will need every last drop of energy it can acquire in the coming years.

Supply will not be able to keep up with demand.

Will this mean perpetual war?

Tomgram: Mike Klare on Our Energy-Stretched Planet

In the last year, we've witnessed a frenzy of new energy deals and energy-related activity linking countries and regions not recently so connected. Chinese and Indian oil officials scour Latin America or strike deals with Iran. The U.S. prowls oil-rich African coastal areas looking for military basing possibilities. Venezuela seeks to forge a new oil-based economic bloc in Latin America. Russia builds oil pipelines to China and the Pacific. And at just this moment we've reached another kind of milestone: According to Jane's Defense Industry, within the next twelve months, U.S. defense spending will achieve new heights, equaling that of the rest of the world combined. Energy and arms, it's a lethal combination adding up to future resource conflicts, as Mike Klare, author of the invaluable Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Oil, indicates in a major reassessment of the state of our energy-stretched planet. Tom


The Intensifying Global Struggle for Energy
By Michael T. Klare

From Washington to New Delhi, Caracas to Moscow and Beijing, national leaders and corporate executives are stepping up their efforts to gain control over major sources of oil and natural gas as the global struggle for energy intensifies. Never has the competitive pursuit of untapped oil and gas reserves been so acute, and never has so much money as well as diplomatic and military muscle been deployed in the contest to win control over major foreign stockpiles of energy. To an unprecedented degree, a government's success or failure in these endeavors is being treated as headline news, and provoking public outcry when a rival power is seen as benefiting unfairly from a particular transaction. With the officials of numerous governments coming under mounting pressure to satisfy the needs of their individual countries -- at whatever cost -- the battle for energy can only become more inflamed in the years ahead.
www.tomdispatch.com...

it is a sad fact that we are comsuming much more energy than what we should but i thin we are as dependent on fossil fuels at this time as we were with the slave trade centries back. but when we have used oil we will have to use some thing else but at the moment we dont have nearly enough so if oil just dissapeared tomorrow we all be in trouble but when it does happen will we be prepared .


dun dun dunnn....

Originally posted by this is yellow 13
it is a sad fact that we are comsuming much more energy than what we should but i thin we are as dependent on fossil fuels at this time as we were with the slave trade centries back.

Yellow 13.. this is EastCoastKid...

Not everyone was dependent on the slave trade.

but when we have used oil we will have to use some thing else but at the moment we dont have nearly enough so if oil just dissapeared tomorrow we all be in trouble but when it does happen will we be prepared .

I doubt it will occur overnight, but will be a gradually painful weaning off of. Prices will soar and consumers will suffer, falling away from fuel use as their incomes are more and more depleted.

It would behoove everyone to start thinking of ways now to lesson our dependency so that when that day of reckoning does come, we will not be hit near as hard.

if i remember rightly there is still a large untapped source north of norway but because of the extreme environment they are delaying drilling there but i will not be long before we need this source..... not 100% sure where i read it think it was on www.rigzone.com but it was a while ago so may not be listed anymore

The question is.. how expensive is it to extract?

When countries get to the point that they are desperate, environmental concerns will be damned. Not saying I support that, but that is the reality.

i guess that is why they are delaying the extraction until it becomes absolutly nesessary for this fuel

Originally posted by jayce
i guess that is why they are delaying the extraction until it becomes absolutly nesessary for this fuel

I'm sure you're right. There's a lot of oil out there all over the place; but, the problem is cost of extraction.

That's why it's taken so long to even discuss pulling our oil out of ANWR in Alaska.

It's insane our government doesn't implement a robust energy strategy now to offset the impending crisis.