[R-G] [BillTottenWeblog] Oil Rules!

[Bill Totten]

Tom Dispatch (April 15 2008)


It's strange that the business and geopolitics of energy takes up so
little space on American front pages - or that we could conduct an oil
war in Iraq with hardly a mention of the words "oil" and "war" in the
same paragraph in those same papers over the years. Strange indeed. And
yet, oil rules our world and energy lies behind so many of the headlines
that might seem to be about other matters entirely.

Take the food riots now spreading across the planet because the prices
of staples are soaring, while stocks of basics are falling. In the last
year, wheat (think flour) has risen by 130%, rice by 74%, soya by 87%,
and corn by 31%, while there are now only eight to twelve weeks of
cereal stocks left globally. Governments across the planetary map are
shuddering. This is a fast growing horror story and, though the cry in
the streets of Cairo and Port au Prince might be for bread, this, too,
turns out to be a tale largely ruled by energy: Too many acres turned
over to corn (and sugar cane) for the creation of biofuels; a historic
drought in Australia and other climate-change-induced extremes of
weather - a result of the burning of fossil fuels - that have affected
crop yields; and many new middle-class consumers, in China and
elsewhere, coming on line, with a growing desire for meat, the
production of which is heavily petroleum based.