Will oil be the cause of the third world war?, page
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reply posted on 1-5-2006 @ 08:58 AM by TheSilentProtagonist
Id imagine that we wont see anything like the scale of world war two, but a series of regionalised conflicts like iraq, occuring wherever theres an abundance (or was an abundance) of natural recources. I think that the western worlds industialised economies will fold long before it gets to the level of a world war.

We in the west are only rich and industrialised becuase theres fuel to put in our machines. Take that away and were dead in the water, we cant go off invading otther nations with no oil to put in our tanks, we cant import cabbages from argentina that grow naturally in our backyards, we cant take holidays to the costa del sol twice a year, and we cant chomp our way through thousands of disposable plastic goods each year. Of course there are alternatives in the form of biomass, wind power, nuclear, electric mass transit, permaculture etc, but its too comlicated and fiddley an alternative to replace the "one size fits all" characteristic that oil has (as in itl fuel everything).

The question isnt so much a technical question but a lifestyle one. People dont want to go to work on electric trains or buses, or dig over their gardens for potatoes, or give up their starbucks coffes fixes, their sweatshop produced Gap jeans, their disposable razors and drinks bottles, their cars, their stereos.
Sustainable energy and culture makes NO PROFITS for the capitalist west. at least not enough to ensure that the american/western economy ticks over and keeps us as the rich men at the top of the world. Theres just too much to loose for them.
No oil will stay until its too late. altetnatives will come, but it will be peicemeal token gestures, too little to late.

The biggest wars well see are civil ones as hundreds of businesses collapese from the reciession caused by oil, and people are left with to means of supporting themelsves or their families. It wont be nice
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