peak oil - Muslim Perspective

Homesteader · Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 8:28 pm Post subject: Re: peak oil - Muslim Perspective

Honestly I don't think very much happens but who knows?

snip:

It takes less time -- around 5,000 years -- for the reversal to occur at lower latitudes. And it takes longer -- about 10,000 years, for the flip to play out nearer the poles. So not only would compasses gradually do a somersault in readings, but Arctic dwellers would see changes that wouldn't match what tropical observers would note across the generations.

Nobody understands how the shift occurs. Perhaps, Clement says, the magnetic field shrinks to essentially nothing, leaving several "mini-poles" at the surface before the main poles rebuild on opposite sides of the world.

Scientists have plenty of reasons to seek a better understanding. For one, the magnetic field lines extend out beyond Earth's atmosphere and provide the first line of defense against strong solar storms. And Clement wonders how the reversals might affect navigation by migrating birds and other animals that key in on the magnetic field to find their way.

"But 7,000 years is probably enough for them to adapt," he said.

"Clement has demonstrated that magnetic field reversal events occur within certain time-frames, regardless of the polarity of the reversal," said Carolyn Ruppel, program director in NSF's division of ocean sciences.

The study is detailed in the April 8 issue of the journal Nature.

Link: http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/earth_poles_040407.html

venky · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 13, 2005 Posts: 824

Gosh, the muslim fundamentalists here are far more annoying than the Christian ones........... Evil or Very Mad

_________________
I play the cards I'm dealt, though I sometimes bluff.

vision-master · Posted: Mon Jun 09, 2008 6:14 pm Post subject: Re: peak oil - Muslim Perspective

mass · Tar Sands Joined: May 20, 2008 Posts: 40

greenworm · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Jan 27, 2006 Posts: 1368

I love the muslims.

However, I don't love muslims that insight fear.

I love muslims who love each other.

mass · Tar Sands Joined: May 20, 2008 Posts: 40

I understand Greenworm. I don't intend to insight fear. In fact I would like to present Islam in a positive light without compromising my principals.

I was asked very deep and meaningful questions on politics, terrorism and comparative religion but some people didn't like the blunt truth. So it may be better not to ask otherwise you may receive a response that you did not expect as you may be accustomed to viewing the world from the perspective of Murdoch papers. There are always two sides to any issue.

venky · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 13, 2005 Posts: 824

vision-master

Besides, da woman dress wierd. Razz

Denny

I find the tendency to use prophesy as a foundation for one's belief system to be a root of all religious evil.

That applikes to Muslims, Christians and Jews alike.

There always seems to be the resort by many people who claim religious leadership to redefine certain key phrases to justifiy whatever point of veiw one is trying to sell.

For me, these faiths all have some gret philosophies to espouse, when it comes to personal development. To strive toward God, finding his road to success in this life and the next.

But, so often, prophecies of great eveils or sometimes great good are used in a triumphalist way. The Jews for instance, discounted Jesus' teachings as he was not the version of the Messiah that their prophecies had led them to believe. Today, many Christians use the book of Revelations as their excuse as to why its okay to accept violence as it seems to be foretold.

mass · Tar Sands Joined: May 20, 2008 Posts: 40

mass · Tar Sands Joined: May 20, 2008 Posts: 40

China has jumped on the bandwagon and uses scare tactics such as the fabricated 'Al Qaida network' or the phantom 'OBL' to justify injustice and oppression in the Muslim oil rich Xinjiang province. So much for the Olympic spirit.

China demolishes mosque over Olympic row
24 Jun 2008

BEIJING: Chinese authorities in Xinjiang have demolished a mosque for refusing to put up signs in support of this August's Beijing Olympics, an exiled group said on Monday.

The mosque was in Kalpin county near Aksu city in Xinjiang's rugged southwest, the World Uyghur Congress said.

"China is forcing mosques in East Turkistan to publicise the Beijing Olympics to get the Uighur people to support the Games (but) this has been resisted by the Uighurs," World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilxat Raxit said in an email.

Beijing says al-Qaida is working with militants in Xinjiang to use terror to establish an independent state called East Turkistan. Oil-rich Xinjiang is home to 8 million Turkic-speaking Uighurs, many of whom resent the growing economic and cultural influence of the Han Chinese.

Dilxat Raxit added that the mosque, which had been renovated in 1998, was accused of illegally renovating the structure, carrying out illegal religious activities and illegally storing copies of the Muslim holy book the Koran.

The Olympic torch relay passed through Xinjiang last week under tight security.

Denny · Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 8:49 pm Post subject: Re: peak oil - Muslim Perspective

Its amazing how Cuba is ostracized, yet China is the real bad guy when it comes to repression of individual and religious rights. I am not saying Cuba is some kind of a model country, its got some real rights issues.

I guess might makes right. Kind of a sorry situation, I'd be happy to see China moved right off the favored nations trading list and put on a sanctions list, but I know that will never happen as the big money seems to call the tune every time.

mass · Tar Sands Joined: May 20, 2008 Posts: 40

Naomi Klein The Guardian, Friday July 4, 2008 Article history

Once oil passed $140 a barrel, even the most rabidly rightwing media hosts had to prove their populist credibility by devoting a portion of every show to bashing Big Oil. Some have gone so far as to invite me on for a friendly chat about an insidious new phenomenon: "disaster capitalism." It usually goes well - until it doesn't.

For instance, "independent conservative" radio host Jerry Doyle and I were having a perfectly amiable conversation about sleazy insurance companies and inept politicians when this happened: "I think I have a quick way to bring the prices down," Doyle announced. "We've invested $650bn to liberate a nation of 25 million people, shouldn't we just demand that they give us oil? There should be tankers after tankers backed up like a traffic jam getting into the Lincoln Tunnel, the stinkin' Lincoln, at rush-hour with thank-you notes from the Iraqi government ... Why don't we just take the oil? We've invested it liberating a country. I can have the problem solved of gas prices coming down in 10 days, not 10 years."

There were a couple of problems with Doyle's plan, of course. The first was that he was describing the biggest stick-up in world history. The second that he was too late. "We" are already heisting Iraq's oil, or at least are on the brink of doing so.

It started with no-bid service contracts announced for Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and Total (they have yet to be signed but are still on course). Paying multinationals for their technical expertise is not unusual in itself. What is odd is that such contracts almost invariably go to oil service companies - not to the oil majors, whose work is exploring, producing and owning carbon wealth. The contracts only make sense in the context of reports that the oil majors have insisted on the right of first refusal on subsequent contracts handed out to manage and produce Iraq's oilfields. In other words, other companies will be free to bid on those future contracts, but these companies will win.

One week after the no-bid service deals were announced, the world caught its first glimpse of the real prize. After years of backroom arm-twisting, Iraq is officially flinging open six of its major oilfields, accounting for half of its known reserves, to foreign investors. According to Iraq's oil minister, the long-term contracts will be signed within a year. While ostensibly under the control of the Iraq National Oil Company, foreign corporations will keep 75% of the value of the contracts, leaving just 25% for their Iraqi partners.

That kind of ratio is unheard of in oil-rich Arab and Persian states, where achieving majority national control over oil was the defining victory of anti-colonial struggles. According to Greg Muttitt, a London-based oil expert, the assumption up until now was that foreign multinationals would be brought in to develop new fields in Iraq - not to take over those which are already in production and therefore require minimal technical support. "The policy was always to allocate these fields to the Iraq National Oil Company," he told me. "This is a total reversal of that policy, giving the Iraq National Oil Company a mere 25% instead of the planned 100%."

So what makes such lousy deals possible in Iraq, which has already suffered so much? Paradoxically, it is Iraq's suffering - its never-ending crisis - that is the rationale for an arrangement that threatens to drain Iraq's treasury of its main revenue source. The logic goes like this: Iraq's oil industry needs foreign expertise because years of punishing sanctions starved it of new technology, while the invasion and continuing violence degraded it further. And Iraq needs to start producing more oil urgently. Why? Also because of the war. The country is shattered and the billions handed out in no-bid contracts to western firms have failed to rebuild it.

And that's where the new contracts come in: they will raise more money, but Iraq has become such a treacherous place that the oil majors must be induced to take the risk of investing. Thus the invasion of Iraq neatly creates the argument for its subsequent pillage.

Several of the architects of the Iraq war no longer even bother to deny that oil was a major motivator for the invasion. On US National Public Radio's To the Point, Fadhil Chalabi, one of the primary Iraqi advisers to the Bush administration in the lead-up to the invasion, recently described the war as "a strategic move on the part of the United States of America and the UK to have a military presence in the Gulf in order to secure [oil] supplies in the future". Chalabi, who served as Iraq's oil undersecretary of state and met with the oil majors before the invasion, described this as "a primary objective".

Invading countries to seize their natural resources is illegal under the Geneva conventions. That means the huge task of rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure - including its oil infrastructure - is the financial responsibility of Iraq's invaders. They should be forced to pay reparations, just as Saddam Hussein's regime paid $9bn to Kuwait in reparations for its 1990 invasion. Instead, Iraq is being forced to sell 75% of its national patrimony to pay the bills for its own illegal invasion and occupation.

mass · Tar Sands Joined: May 20, 2008 Posts: 40

THE OIL CRISIS and the Khiillaffah
Solution

A paper addressing the current oil crisis: its causes, consequences and some solutions from an Islamic perspective.

Hizb ut-Tahrir Britain July 2008 Rajab 1429

Introduction

A Crisis Caused by Capitalism

And when your Lord said to the angels: Lo! I am about to place a viceroy in the earth, they said: Will thou place therein one who will do harm therein and will shed blood, while we, we hymn thy praise and sanctify Thee? He said: Surely I know that which you know not.
Translated meaning of Quran: Al-Baqarah - 30

The current oil crisis has transfixed the entire world both with its severity and its volatility. Demonstrations in Western Europe and riots in countries as far apart as Haiti, Egypt and Bangladesh have brought home the human cost. Ten years ago in December 1998 oil was priced at less than $10 per barrel. Today oil is nearer $150
per barrel with some analysts believing that it could reach $200 by the end of the year. With oil at record highs, people in every country are now faced with not just higher fuel prices but increasing uncertainty as economies teeter into recession.

Western politicians who until recently were passive about this steep rise now desperately try to find scapegoats and excuses. From Washington to London, politicians point the finger anywhere but at their own policies. Most prominently they have blamed the Muslim oil producing world for a lack of supply. However the lack of supply is a mirage, with more fundamental reasons behind the
rise in the dollar price of oil:

1. Firstly, the depreciating dollar has driven the price up as oil is denominated in the US currency. Since 2002 the US dollar has depreciated almost 40% against other world currencies as the US Federal Reserve continues to print money at an alarming pace. The US economy is a basket case with respect to economic fundamentals: a weak dollar, high trade deficits and a $9 trillion dollar fiscal deficit. It is little wonder that the rest of the world is retreating fast from the declining greenback.

2. Secondly, demand for all commodities has risen sharply due to strong economic growth in many parts of the world especially in China. For instance Chinese steelmakers have just negotiated a 90% rise in the cost of iron ore with western mining companies. The costs of copper, zinc, and aluminum have all risen as have
other fuels such as coal and natural gas. Demands are not made that western countries and companies mine more coal or extract more iron or smelt more aluminium to compensate for these rising prices.

It is as if the regimes in the Muslim world steal from the poor and
hungry to give to these rich banks!

3. Thirdly, according to statistical data the US has almost 30 billion barrels of proven yet untapped oil reserves, with other experts believing the figure could rise to about 75 billion if the offshore continental shelf and the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) are included. In addition the US hoards over 700 million barrels of oil in its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Yet the US refuses point blank to drill either off its coastal waters or in the ANWR, or release oil from its SPR hypocritically preferring to blame others for not increasing their supply.

4. Fourthly, the US’s consumption of oil is a tale of excess. The US has fewer than 5% of the world’s population yet consumes almost a quarter of the world’s oil. To put this into perspective the US consumes more oil than the whole of Europe, Russia and the former members of the Soviet Union combined. Yet despite
having the largest proven coal reserves and being the largest consumer of nuclear energy, the US still lectures the Muslim world on not producting sufficient oil.

5. Fifthly, as well as criticising others for not drilling enough oil, politicians have begun to blame the high oil price on greedy speculators. This has contributed to some extent, for speculation has massively increased volatility in the markets. However, it is surprising to hear speculation is coming under criticism. It is the
lifeblood of capitalist financial markets and when speculators nearly destroyed the economies of South East Asia in the late 90’s, western politicians defended them extolling their virtues.

6. Sixthly, though oil prices have risen sharply and undoubtedly caused misery for millions, the price of oil relative to other commodities is not that high. The price of an untaxed litre of petrol is cheaper than a litre of mineral water. Much of the high price of petrol is driven by high levels of government taxation; in the UK this
contributes over 70% of the price at the pump. Add the margins of the refineries, transportation and retail profit and it can be seen why petrol is so high. It obviously suits capitalist governments in the west to blame the Muslim world, yet they choose to levy highly regressive taxes on motorists while minimising the burden on the rich and powerful. In Britain fuel taxes contribute £23 billion to
the exchequer, yet the corporation taxes paid by the banking and oil sectors only total £15 billion.

The Complicity of the Rulers in the Muslim world

However it is not just the myths spun by western
politicians in the oil debate that require exposing,
the leaders of the Muslim world have also failed
the leadership test.

A. They have squandered the benefit from the high oil price. Instead of investing the money in long term industrial projects and education they have been busy building opulent 7 star hotels and bailing out investment banks on Wall Street (at a massive paper loss). While the poor are forced to the brink of starvation,
government investment bodies like the Sovereign Wealth Funds are using oil revenues to bail out Western banks (CitiBank, Merryll Lynch and Barclays). It is as if the regimes in the Muslim world steal from the poor and hungry to give to these rich banks!

B. Despite the Muslim world having nearly 70% of the world’s proven oil reserves and almost 55% of natural gas reserves, successive leaders in the Muslim oil producing countries have failed to invest sufficiently in oil and gas infrastructure such as refining capacity. The Muslim world may enjoy a dominant position in the oil
reserves league table but it is in a poor position in refining capacity, enjoying less than 10% of world production. A lack of refining capacity is not only financially stupid but jeopardises national security as critical products such as petrol, heating oil and
aviation fuel have to be imported.

C. Thirdly instead of adhering to the saying of the Prophet (saw) who stated that “the people share in three things water, green pastures and fire (energy)” the rulers in the Muslim world have failed to redistribute the wealth coming from oil and gas.

Massive inequality and poverty remains with many even in the middle classes suffering from not just high energy costs but increasing prices for food and housing. This has been exacerbated by the stupendously foolish decision by certain Muslim rulers to peg their currencies to the US dollar rather than to the gold standard as Islam requires.

As the paper dollar depreciates, imports have become more expensive causing not just misery for the ordinary population but a massive outsourcing of control over monetary policy to the US Federal Reserve. However, what the Muslim world really requires to successfully compete with the dominance of the US, the EU, China, Russia and India in the 21st century is to realign politically under the Islamic system. Not only is unity an Islamic obligation, it makes sense politically as well. Merging the oil and gas wealth of the Middle East, with educated labour forces in Malaysia and Egypt, alongside fertile agricultural lands in Bangladesh and Indonesia allied with strong military forces in Pakistan and Turkey
would make a powerful combination. Though some will dismiss this as a dream, a pan-national Caliphate was a reality before and geo-political trends favour its imminent restoration. If the EU can become a 27 strong organisation after the ashes of World War 2, then the Muslim world with its shared faith and values can once
again take its position at the top table of international politics.

Unlike the emergence of China and India who are intent on mimicking the failed capitalist model which presides over grotesque levels of poverty, malnourishment and preventable disease, under the banner of delivering economic prosperity, the Caliphate will offer a new model. Redistribution of wealth, tackling poverty, investing for the long term and sharing the proceeds of oil amongst all the people (not just the elite) will be key objectives of the new state.

It has been the absence of the Islamic way of life in the Muslim world which has led to this instability, poverty and injustice. And it is only its resumption which gives any hope of economic progress, and the fair management and utilisation of this incredible resource. For under the Islamic system, oil will be utilised by the State on behalf of its citizens. In addition, a stable currency based on the gold/silver standard would be protected from the devalued
dollar, and hence inflation would not be the destabilising factor it is now.

There is no doubting the importance of oil to the global economy, an importance that is likely to grow as its true value is recognised. But the greatest threat to global stability is the fact that western
superpowers continue to dominate its extraction and distribution. For them, the value of corporate share prices outweighs economic stability for poorer nations, affordable food for the ordinary man and any sense of economic justice across the world. This
is how things will remain as long as global capitalism remains unchallenged in the world.

It is often said of the modern world that we know the price of everything and the value of nothing. There can be no truer statement when it comes to the matter of oil, where people worry over the price but ignore the huge cost in human life in running a global economy for the interests of fat super-wealthy corporations of the west.

This paper seeks to address the true facts behind the current crisis and asks at what cost, whilst arguing the case for an Islamic alternative, which would ensure oil for all but not at the expense of human life and abject misery for millions.

Allah (swt) says ““And when it is said to them, ‘make not mischief in the earth’, they say: ‘we are only peace-makers’. Verily, they are the ones who make mischief but they perceive not” Translated Meaning Qur’an al-Baqarah: 11-12

dorlomin · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Aug 05, 2007 Posts: 1061