Remember Lloyds of London? “The world’s leading insurance market providing specialist insurance services to businesses in over 200 countries and territories,” according to them? And according to Wikipedia and everybody else, “one of the primary sources of Lloyds business was the insurance of ships engaged in slave trading^[2], as Britain rapidly established itself as the chief slave trading power in the Atlantic. British shipping carried more than 3.25 million people into slavery^[3], meaning that by the end of the eighteenth century, slave trading had become one of the primary constituents of all British trade.”

Well, now they’re issuing semi-dire warnings about the arrival of peak oil. Some of the things they’re predicting: “Businesses which prepare for and take advantage of the new energy reality will prosper - failure to do so could be catastrophic”; “China and growing Asian economies will play an increasingly important role in global energy security”; “We are heading towards a global oil supply crunch and price spike”; “Energy infrastructure will become increasingly vulnerable as a result of climate change and operations in harsher environments”…

This is great, right?  It’s about time that big evil corporations are running scared. I’m sure there’s a proverb to be quoted or invented there - when the wicked are afraid, the righteous rejoice?

Right?

Or does this just mean that shit is just poised to get a whole lot worse, A WHOLE LOT FASTER? The status quo won’t change until it absolutely has to…

Any kind of major transformation carries the seeds of radical progressive change - but in practice, big catastrophes seem to get exploited by the rich to consolidate power and resources (9/11, Katrina), while the poor lose everything they own, and starve, and die…

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