Now the Beijing Olympics are over I would say that they will go down in history as the peak of western civilization.

As China opened up to the western world, western civilization started on its downward death spiral.

As historians look back they will probably blame China because as China built itself and the Olympics they helped to use up the last of the cheap oil.

In 2000 at the Sydney Olympics oil was under $30 a barrel and the price had moved over $30 a barrel for the Athens Olympics say to around $35 for the Olympics.

Somewhere between Athens and Beijing we ran out of cheap oil.

By the time we got to Beijing, oil had nearly taken out the $150 but then it crashed back to under $120 a barrel. We could call this little spike in oil the first oil shock attributed to peak oil. Now we could be on a plateau where oil prices hover around this level before moving up for another leg on the way to peak oil.

Between Sydney and Athens the price of oil went up about 50% but between Athens and Beijing we are looking at a major move. From $35 to $70 is 100% and then from $70 to $140 is another 100% but it came off a bit so we could honestly say the move was under 200% but not much under.

So where to now?

I don’t know but I think with the world heading into recession oil use will drop or level off. And then when economic activity resumes we will see the price of oil take off again.

I would say from now on life will progressively get worse as oil gets more expensive. And we will never see another Olympics as grand and spectacular as the Beijing Olympics. I very much doubt if the London Olympics goes ahead.

What a way to end an era.

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