Sunday, June 1, 2008

Welcome Aboard Newsweek...

...the rate at which mainstream media is not just reporting on Peak Energy issues but actually recognizing the reality of their effects is, well, startling in many ways.

Just scroll through the Daily Sprawl archives and you'll find the NYT, Wall St. Journal, Business Week and other big hitters joining the Peak Energy calvacade.

And, lest they be left behind, we now welcome Newsweek and its recent report on "The Coming Energy Wars":
Oil drives so much of the global economy, it's almost impossible to fully imagine the world of $200 oil. No question, the shock will force nations to go greener much faster than now, particularly by conserving energy and developing and adopting new non-fossil fuels. But none of this can happen full stop in six to 24 months. So the predictions tend to be gloomy: some analysts see a shift toward regional trade, and even a major reversal of globalization itself, as rising transport costs make it too expensive to ship many kinds of goods long distances. A major acceleration in the transfer of wealth that has, in the past five years, shifted trillions of petrodollars from oil consumers to producers would alter the world balance of power—including a boost for the troublesome oil autocrats of Iran, Venezuela and Russia. At $200 a barrel the proven oil reserves of the six Gulf nations alone would rise in value to $95 trillion, about twice the size of public equity markets, according to Morgan Stanley managing director Stephen Jen. That would make the Sovereign Wealth Funds of oil states market kingmakers. Western efforts to press more openness on these funds, many controlled by royal courts, would surely grow.