DOOM-O-RAMA -- Wednesday Edition

[Speck Tater]

End of consumerism

...
There is this myth going round, says Krumdieck, that with every decade we have grown wealthier because we have collectively become smarter and more productive. If everything is bigger, better, brighter, well, it has been earned.

Yet actually we have just been digging up and burning more fossil fuel. Graph the world's energy consumption against its gross domestic product (GDP) and the two lines track. So get down to the nitty gritty and this is what it has all been about. Converting oil or coal into shoes, hamburgers, cellphones and SUVs.

However, a reckoning is coming. The ecological limits on growth have come into view. Climate change and over- population. But peak oil most immediately.
...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/lifestyle/mainlander/4448279/End-of-consumerism

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Antarctic Melting as Deep Ocean Heat Rises

...
Martinson and his colleagues looked not only at their very detailed and mapped water heat data from the last two decades, but compared them with sketchier data from the past and deep ocean heat content measurements worldwide. All show the same rising trend that is being seen in Antarctica.

"When I saw that my jaw just dropped," said Martinson. The most dramatic rise has happened since 1960, he said.

What the rising water heat means, he said, is that even if humanity got organized and soon stopped emitting greenhouse gases, there is already too much heat in the oceans to stop a lot of impacts -- like the melting of a huge amount of Antarctic ice.
...
http://news.discovery.com/earth/antarctica-melting-warming-penguins-101214.html

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10 Signs That Confidence In U.S. Treasuries Is Dying And Financial Armageddon Approaches

Confidence is U.S. Treasuries is dying, and if confidence in U.S. government debt completely collapses at some point we could literally be looking at financial Armageddon.

Why is that so?

Well, when the world totally loses faith in U.S. Treasuries, interest rates on U.S. Treasuries will have to keep going up until enough investors are found to buy them. But much higher interest rates will mean much higher interest on the national debt and thus much higher federal budget deficits. That will erode confidence in U.S. Treasuries even further. In the end, a vicious cycle of eroding confidence and higher interest rates could ultimately lead to hyperinflation as the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve flood the system with endless amounts of paper money to try to keep the system solvent.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/us-treasury-confidence-is-dying-2010-12##ixzz188D1Mikp

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Oil to Exceed $100 in 2011 as OPEC Spare Capacity Shrinks, Goldman Says

A drop in OPEC spare production capacity will signal a “second stage” in the oil market’s recovery, lifting crude higher than $100 a barrel by the second half of 2011, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-14/oil-to-exceed-100-by-second-half-of-2011-as-demand-recovers-goldman-says.html

(Speck Tater's Comment: Oddly enough, Goldman Sachs sees this as a good thing because a bull market in oil is a profit-making opportunity for investors. I guess they've forgotten what happens to the U.S. economy when oil goes over $80/barrel. In spite of their rosey spin, this is a very bad thing.)

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Well, those headlines paint an interesting picture.

Pls. keep on with these postings. I like the way you combine topical news.

:bounce: :bounce:

[Mojorabbit]

2. It does not look promising

As soon as we start to rev up the economy,the price of oil will throw us into another tailspin. I am hoping things will work out ok.