The Arabian Spring! Why?

[ralfy]

Also, high oil and food prices contributing to global social unrest.

[radon]

Rebels fighting the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria will be paid salaries, the opposition Syrian National Council has announced.

Money will also be given to soldiers who defect from the government's army, the SNC added, after a "Friends of the Syrian people" summit in Turkey.

Conference delegates said wealthy Gulf Arab states would supply millions of dollars a month for the SNC fund.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17578248

[threadbare]

The article explains the Arab Spring in lofty terms, a consequence of "moral shock" that "embodies a different utopian politics." It "seeks a new beginning." High sounding language that obfuscates. Hides the truth.

No mention of high food or fuel costs, and no suggestion that unemployment, lack of opportunity, over-crowding, and finally over-population as a root cause. We shouldn't be surprised that peak oil takes its first toll in these ancient worn out ecologies. Too many people and not enough fresh water, arable land, cheap energy. The truth of Malthusian overshoot and die off is just too nasty to contemplate and thus the real problems will never be addressed or real solutions considered.

No coincidence the discontent started around the time there were world wide food shocks, many arising out of land being used to produce ethanol rather than food and feed corn. That rippled throughout agro commodities and drove the price of rice up as well. The politics of the region has stunk big time for years. All of a sudden the major powers are getting all sentimental about freedom in the Arab lands? I smell a rat too.

[ralfy]

"Why Global Fuel Prices Will Spark the Next Revolutions"

http://world.time.com/2012/11/28/why-gl ... volutions/

[pstarr]

"Why Global Fuel Prices Will Spark the Next Revolutions"

http://world.time.com/2012/11/28/why-gl ... volutions/

No mention the relationship between fuel and food. Until the very first comment;

Rising population and declining oil production is a dangerous combinations. Add the fact that each calorie of food requires about 10 calories of fossil fuel to process and you see that food prices are proportional to energy prices. Countries like Egypt and Jordan that are net food and oil importers, and have young growing populations are in serious danger of collapse.

Seasonal world inventories of grains shrink each year. The very next time we are forced to eat our seed grains we are completely screwed. We are all one-weeks-worth-of-empty-supermarket-shelves away from serious danger of collapse.