Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Shale gas: Halliburton’s weapon of mass devastation

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Shale gas: Halliburton’s weapon of mass devastation

Click here to access article by F. William Engdahl from Voltaire Network.

Compare this informative article, that US mainstream media will never publish or broadcast, with the one above from NPR. (I'm wondering if the quiet change of the radio network's name from National Public Radio into strictly "NPR" has to do with the fact of falling revenues from listener contributions and increasing revenues from private corporations including those hiding behind non-profit institutions like the Open Society Institute.)

Find out what the author means when he refers to "Halliburton's weapon of mass destruction" and the "Halliburton Loophole”.

I take issue with his last paragraph. The data I've seen shows clearly that fossil fuel production has been at a plateau since 2005. Because new oil and other fossils fuels are much more expensive and time consuming to extract, I do not think that their production will increase sufficiently in the future to offset the loss of production in older oil fields. In addition, with contamination of water supplies, fracking is going to meet with increased opposition.

(See also this, this, this, and this.)