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Culture Change print magazine issues: 20  19  18  17  16  15  14  13  12  11  10  9  8  index

Pedal Power solutions to petroleum dependence and polluting vehicles: Arcata Library Bikes, Pedal Power Produce, and more!

CAOE - Committee Against Oil Exploration - stop offshore oil drilling to protect sensitive habitats and cut petroleum dependence.

Culture Change through music! The Depavers eco-rock!

Take our Pledge for Climate Protection and learn about the Global Warming Crisis Council.

SEI hometown action!
Arcata city council's proclamation against war on Iraq and Kyoto Protocol proclamation.

Overpopulation has become a reality.  Overpopulation Resources and News Tidbits

Sail Transport Network

Fact Sheets
Interviews
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APM
Links

Long Distance

 

Afghanistan attack smells of oil motive

The following is a the essence of "The New Great Game: Oil Politics in Central Asia," an article by syndicated cartoonist Ted Rall, who has traveled extensively in the region.

Rall visited troubled Central Asia, again embroiled in war, last year with the cooperation of the U.S. State Dept. His new report starts by pointing out that in Kazakhstan geologists believe there lies the biggest untapped oil reserves in the world. Its nearest sea is the landlocked Caspian. For a pipeline to oil markets, the shortest route runs through Iranóbut Kazakhstan is too closely aligned with the U.S.

Rall reports that of the various alternatives, Unocalís plan would extend neighboring Turkmenistanís existing system west to the Kazakh field and southeast to Pakistanís port Karachi. That project runs through Afghanistan.

Around 1994 the U.S. and Pakistan helped install a regime in Afghanistanó a regime that would end civil war and ensure safety of the pipeline project. The U.S. and Pakistanís intelligence service agreed to funnel arms and funding to the Taliban in their war against the Tajikís Northern Alliance. In 1999, U.S. taxpayers paid the salary of every Taliban government official, in hopes of maintaining cheap oil supply. Pakistan would pick up revenues from a Karachi oil port facility. Rall says "the Bushies have the perfect excuse to do what the U.S. has wanted all alongóinvade and/or install a puppet regime in Kabul. Realpolitik no more cares about the 6,000 dead (Sept. 11) than it concerns itself with oppressed women in Afghanistan..."

But Muslim extremists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan will support additional terror attacks on the U.S. to avenge the elimination of the Taliban. A U.S.-installed Northern Alliance canít hold Kabul without an army of occupation because Afghan legitimacy hinges on capturing the capital on oneís own. Moreover, "Pakistanís ethnic Pashtun government will never stand the replacement of their Pashtun brothers in the Taliban by Northern Alliance Tajiks. Without Pakistani cooperation, thereís no getting the oil out and thereís no chance for stability in Afghanistan." Rall concludes by paraphrasing Bush: "ëMake no mistakeí: this is about oil. Itís always about oil... "

 

Are you ready for the FALL OF PETROLEUM CIVILIZATION?

Articles of interest:
Measuring and controlling the actions of governments 


Anti-globalization protest grows, with tangible results. 
WTO protests page

Tax fossil-fuel energy easily
by Peter Salonius 

UK leader calls War on Terror "bogus"

Argentina bleeds toward healing by Raul Riutor

The oil industry has plans for you: blow-back by Jan Lundberg

It's not a war for oil? by Adam Khan

How to create a pedestrian mall by Michelle Wallar

The Cuban bike revolution

How GM destroyed the U.S. rail system excerpts from the film "Taken for a Ride".

"Iraqi oil not enough for US: Last days of America?"

Depaving the world by Richard Register

Roadkill: Driving animals to their graves by Mark Matthew Braunstein

The Hydrogen fuel cell technofix: Spencer Abraham's hydrogen dream.

 

Ancient Forest Protection in Northern California. Forest defenders climb trees to save them.

Daniel Quinn's thoughts on this website.

A case study in unsustainable development is the ongoing crisis in Palestine and Israel.

Renewable and alternative energy information.

Conserving energy at home (Calif. Title 24)


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Culture Change was founded by Sustainable Energy Institute (formerly Fossil Fuels Policy Action), a nonprofit torganization.