US oil importsAn outstanding example of how the achievement society favours solutions that lead to instability is the USA's dependency on oil imports.Already in 1956 the geologist Dr. Hubbert coined the term "peak oil" to refer to maximum oil production. He predicted this would occur in 1970 for the USA, and at the beginning of the 21st century worldwide. In the case of the USA his estimate was one year out: US oil production has been declining since 1971. Already in 1970 the USA had to import 24% of its oil demand. By 2005 this figure had risen to 65%, tendency rising. Since then, eight US Presidents have announced their intention to reduce the US dependency on oil imports: Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Regan, Bush Senior, Bill Clinton, Bush Junior, Barack Obama. But they are only presidents, helpless men in the White House who can do nothing against the madness of the achievement society.
Rising oil imports create an unstable situation, which drives the USA to ever more achievement. People will have to earn more if they want to keeping driving a car. The US military will have to be in a position to protect the oil trade routes everywhere. There will be wars, forcing the USA to renewed achievement.
The dependency on oil imports are an economic and military threat for the USA. The 1960s were the decade of space travel. We declared the 1970s to be the decade of wind energy, the 1980s to the deacde of solar energy, and the 1990s to the decade of electromobility. Of course, all projects start at the same time, but we expected the relevant technologies to be mass market capable by these respective decades. |
