While global warming is a huge issue, in itself, I believe a more near-term issue is Peak Oil. Peak Oil means that the world reaches the most oil it can ever produce and will begin to decline production, no matter how much technology and money is applied to the problem. Many industry experts believe we have reached the global peak already, or will very soon. Once this happens, oil will get extremely expensive if its even available at all. We will look at our current oil/gas prices as very cheap. This is the issue raised in the Hirsch report ... and will effect every part of our economy in ways we can't even imagine.

Here is an excellent video done by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Peak Oil. It lasts 13 min and should be viewed by every politician. This will be the biggest issue we've ever faced and will happen very shortly.

In the video, they mention that Exxon is saying Peak Oil is decades away. They have a huge vested interest in saying this because the value of their company is based on reserves. If the reserves are less then they say they are, then their company isn't worth as much and share price will drop. So we can't believe the sugar-coating of this by the oil companies.

So far the only politicians I've seen that are warning about the Peak Oil issue are Republicans. Maryland congressman Gilchrest and Bartlett, are as far as I know, the only congressman that have addressed Congress with this issue. Here are their speeches in Congress on this issue.  Bartlett's speech is very good.

It would be nice to hear some Democrats mentioning an issue that is about to affect us in a way we can't even imagine. Without oil, we can't even ship food to grocery stores, or even grow it for that matter. While people may understand that global warming is a huge issue, they won't take it seriously until it effects them directly, which may take some time. But Peak Oil will affect them soon, and or already, due to high energy prices. Bush and Cheney have covered up Peak Oil, but watch the Republican Congress start to distance themselves and be the ones to bring up the issue. Where are the Democrats???

[Ed: More information can be found on Rick Jaworski's web site here.]

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