Adversaries: Earth

Was this a throwaway comment?

"We're more likely to see other companies as collaborators rather than adversaries ... We aren't so much competing with other as we are competing with the Earth. And maybe that's a healthy way to look at it." -- George Kirkland, Chairman and Managing Director Nigeria Chevron Limited (as quoted in the Goodman's "Th Exception to The Rulers"

I have always used this as a first-order rule when analyzing the conditional premises surrounding the dynamics of oil depletion. Unrelenting greed becomes the overriding factor in the stimulus. Model it as a process of exploit, exploit, exploit, and then exploit some more, and you have captured the oil grab mentality. I really don't believe economics plays much of a role in the driving stimulus as technology and human consumption turn it into a monotonically increasing function. Which makes it a good first-order rule.

I did happen to see Amy Goodman and David Goodman speak today, whence she paraphrased the above quote. That bit of tacit knowledge, perhaps inadvertently spoken by a oil honcho, basically outlines the entire premise of dispersive discovery and the oil shock model. It basically says find as much as you can while you can, and turn on the taps as much as they can handle.

I learned that David Goodman has also written quite a bit on backcountry, downhill, and x-c skiing in New England. He joins Bill McKibben with his X-C manifesto Endurance on my short list of New England-based progressive environmental/journalists who want to save the planet, and who also enjoy a most obscure recreational pasttime.

While on the subject of lists, actor Matthew Modine has organized www.bicycleforaday.org slated for later this year. He joins fellow costar of "Married to the Mob", Michelle Pfeiffer, in a list of actors from the greatest Mafia movie of all time, who have advanced the state of bicycle ridership. She, according to urban legend once said "I relax by taking my bicycle apart and putting it back together again." (google it) Could have fooled me, but someone should ask Modine to get the real scoop. He'll need all the help he can get to make that day a success. I chipped in and bought a card from him that says "card-carrying liberal".