Peak oil - keep your eye on the donut and not the hole

In the (alas, too few) years to come, we will see great argument over the proper allocation of dwindling oil reserves. It will be realised that other sources of energy cannot deliver sufficient surpluses to replace the potent portable energy we know as gasoline and diesel. It is not generally understood that poorer quality energy sources can be critically dependant on oil for their extraction, processing and distribution. In other words, oil is the precursor for other sources of energy; gas, coal, nuclear, solar, hydro, because these require oil fuel to create and maintain infrastructure. It also gives them the illusion of being profitable.

Corporate profit, the free market and monetary wealth have become our fundamental religion over the past three decades. It is deemed not only good but right that market forces will somehow deliver the best outcomes in an energy-depleted world. Our government's energy policies will probably prioritise the development of alternative energy sources in order of profitability. What a mistake that might be. The mind that understands the abstract chicanery of money is a poor tool for chiselling out a daily existence in some sort of co-operative way. This is well understood in the mining industry, which somehow still manages to provide us with necessities despite the efforts of many company accountants.

Would you think me a jester if I said that the one true currency is energy? It always was and always will be. Economics is the game of Tiddlywinks that we can afford to play only in the midst of easy, abundant energy. Energy is the donut, economics is the hole.

Have no doubt that the race for the last of the easy energy has begun. First out of the stalls was the US military-industrial complex, which in 2000 installed the loser in a presidential election. So began operation "war on terror", launched under a smokescreen - a fusillade of explosions provided by men of Middle-Eastern appearance. While it is up to the Islamists to provide some semblance of a threat, it is up to us Westerners to imagine the terror.

The Coalition of the Willing leaders have offered their services as cheerleaders of the terrified and I understand that the American incumbent has some prior experience in this regard. In the rush to be fashionably terrified, it is hoped that we will not notice how the last reserves of sweet oil are being encircled and plundered.

Of course it can be argued that the US military-industrial complex has the greatest need of the greatest share of oil. Their warfare would be utterly impossible without it - imagine that! Sometimes in my wildest waking dreams I imagine those Pentagon brass hats having to pedal a 65 tonne Abrams tank to work. Oh yes!

But then, I am only a bit of a jester.