…of oil is nigh
Announcing the PPP’s policy on the rate of production of oil that’s most feasible for our country’s development, VP Jagdeo phrased the “depletion policy” as simply as anyone – including even the most obtuse newspaper publisher – could wish for: get it out from under the ocean bed as fast as we can, and pocket our 14.5% profit! The newspaper fella said he “understood but doesn’t agree”. Fair enough, but one wonders what was the basis of his disagreement. So, let’s see if we can clear up things for him a tad.
Now the only rational reason we’d want to keep our oil in the ground and pump it out slowly is if we can sell it at a higher price in the future, or if we want to stretch out our income stream. (Your Eyewitness doesn’t think Melinda Janki’s proposal for us to leave it in the ground forever is rational!) About the income stream point…it’s taken for granted, if prices aren’t going to rise, it’s best to take the money now and put it in the bank. Or invest it in, say, shopping malls like the newspaper fella – since its value would depreciate in the future because of inflation. So that one’s out.
Now about the price in the future. To decide on this, you gotta look at where the market for the product is heading – based on supply and demand issues. Like in the newspaper business… considering whether folks would still be buying the same number of hard copy newspapers ten years from now will determine whether to invest in new presses. So, what are the prospects for oil and other fossil fuels…which have pretty much been making the world of transportation, and manufacturing, and everything that uses electricity literally go around for centuries.
Well, we know that, five years ago, in Paris, the world made a commitment to cut back on oil and other fossil fuels…and several countries, such as Norway and Denmark, have actually stopped production. The production of electricity from “renewables” – such as solar, wind and water power – has grown exponentially. With transportation, the two largest countries have committed to getting out of “oil fired” engines in two decades, and transition into electric cars. In response, last year, both Royal Dutch Shell and BP said they’ve reached their production high. Their values have fallen, as have ExxonMobil’s – which was ejected from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, having been a member since 1928.
Yes, 2020 might just be the year that consecrated the beginning of the end of the oil era. Jagdeo is prescient.
We hope the newspaper fella will sell as many newspapers as he can right now!
…of speculation on numbers
We all know the fable of how Columbus stumbled over the Caribbean (Bahamas, to be exact) while looking for India. He described how friendly and hospitable were the folks he met. A pity, cause if they’d been more aggressive, they could’ve wiped out the invaders on the Pinta, Nina and the Santa Maria – who were to eventually lead to their extermination. In the years since, there’s been much speculation as to how many perished through the European “guns, germs and steel”. Most estimates have ranged from 1 to 2 million.
But from some findings just released, scientists used the DNA from a number of ancient skeletons to now estimate that there might have been far less Indigenous peoples in the Caribbean than those older estimates. It is now suggested they might’ve been just one tenth of those numbers. That, of course, doesn’t mitigate the genocide committed by the Europeans.
But it does remind us that many of the “truths” about our history might have to be revised.
