Re: SC18

http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=61&Itemid=1

Peak Oil and the health care crisis in America

.......And America's health care crisis will be resolved -- or descend into systemic chaos -- in the context of the emerging worldwide energy crisis. This will astound those industry professionals who are, first, unaware of the dimensions of the incipient energy predicament and, second, possess only a vague understanding of the indispensable role petroleum (as well as natural gas) plays in medicine. The era of cheap, abundant fossil fuels is in its twilight, and, as things now stand, the health care community -- like the society at large -- is wholly unprepared for this geologically-mandated transformation.........

.......If, as petroleum and natural gas become more expensive, administrators do not awaken to the crisis, they will simply pass costs along and perpetuate the status quo expansion-based business model. Furthermore, as the Baby Boomers, a demographic cohort/bulge twice the size of the preceding generation, begin to retire around 2010, they will demand perhaps twice as many medical resources as they do today. Economists tell us that if the supply of a given resource runs short of demand and substitutes are not available, the market will "stabilize" through demand destruction. In the context of healthcare, demand destruction would be utterly dismal: huge numbers of sick Americans would simply not be able to afford medical treatment.........


.........Most people, healthy or not, are distracted by daily consuming and perhaps the spectator sport of watching politicians play musical chairs while enhancing the corporate bottom line. But those of us concerned about larger issues such as petrocollapse and climate change are focusing on such matters as health care in a world about to experience unprecedented upheaval.

There may not be time for reform of the health care system, such as creating a Canadian-like system in the U.S., even if we started now. So you're probably on your own, but "Action is the antidote to despair."

We worrywarts are well grounded in scientific data and industry expertise. For example, authors Matt Simmons and Julian Darley have been warning that North American natural gas supply is too tight for comfort, as reserves dwindle. Extreme temperatures will at some point soon overtax the electric power grid in a devastating fashion. In our previous Culture Change Letter, petroleum expert Simmons warned of blackouts due to natural gas shortage in a very cold winter. This is a dire public health crisis waiting to happen that could make New Orleans/Katrina look like a mere rehearsal.

How will this challenge be addressed? When it comes to leadership, there's nobody home. So-called solutions include maximizing liquified natural gas facilities to import more of this form of gas - an impractical (and unhealthful, unsafe) approach to deal with base load demand. Therefore, as the nation is unable to build its way out of its terminal petroleum crisis, the best thinking appears to have arrived at the consensus that demand-destruction and lifestyle change are the only feasible route. Fundamental changes to the nation's infrastructure NEEDED TO BEGIN DECADES AGO.