The world would have to drastically realign its outlook if the three countries with the world's largest oil deposits were the United States, China and Israel. That realigned world may be ours in less than a decade if new technologies can fulfil expectations of exploiting known oil shale deposits.
At the Advocates for Civil Liberties'
Canada and the New Middle East conference last week, Financial Post columnist Lawrence Solomon discussed the amazing possibilities presented by newly developed technology that can produce fuel from oil shale at $40 per barrel. Within as little as five years, these deposits may be fully actualized, meaning energy self-sufficiency and profits for countries like the US and China, which have the world's largest and second largest identified oil shale deposits. For countries like Israel that ranks 3rd with it' deposits amounting to as much as 500 billion barrels, there is the potential to become one of the world's major petroleum exporters.
The result would be a massive shake up of the Middle East's geo-political reality. Oil prices would likely plummet, and middle eastern countries ruled by despots propped up by oil revenues would see their economies collapse along with those nations' social cohesion.
Islamist terror is for the most part funded by oil revenue, particularly in the case of Saudi Arabia. In a unsavoury deal between two devils, Saudi Sheiks fund Wahhabi Islamic extremism abroad as a form of protection pay-off that sees their rule at home face little challenge. Iran uses its petro-dollars to fund its Revolutionary Guard Corps that brutalize the domestic population and proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah who engage in terrorist activities throughout the middle east and Latin America.
If oil shale from the US, Canada, which also has major deposits, and other free countries becomes a major source of energy and revenue, it would see the leaders of countries like Venezuela and Iran without the means to stir up trouble outside their borders, while having to face new ones within them.
The new reality posed by this development makes it all the more clear why environmental groups are so closely aligned with groups who advocate for Iran and are so sympathetic to Islamists. They have common interest in trying to sabotage the West's ability to achieve energy independence.
One of the interesting aspects that the Financial Post's Solomon observed is that while much of Global Warming alarmism is a sham, you would never know that from reading most mainstream media, like Canada's most popular dailies the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star. If one had to rely exclusively on those media, one might not realize that there are as many climate scientists (as opposed to fruit fly geneticists) who disagree as agree with the theory that global warming is the result of human activity.
Solomon noted that it is actually through blogs that the most accurate and balanced information about Global Warming science is available. It must be that bloggers are less intimidated by the prospect of falling into disfavour from the likes of Al Gore and David Suzuki. Of course, bloggers generally have less to lose, as they are already unlikely to receive invitations to caviar and champagne parties at Sundance, so the threat of having them withdrawn is not particularly intimidating.
