"Glomart" is short for "Global Market Economy." It is my name
for the Corporate Beast who is our common enemy--the enemy of
humanity and Gaia alike. Resemblances to the names "Walmart"
and "K-Mart" are entirely intentional. -Tom Ellis

We're all on this huge Glomart Express train going down these
Hydrocarbon Economy tracks. The train's energy comes from the
tracks. We're accelerating at 2% per year and have been for
quite some time. We're going really fast now. The tracks look
OK, and the ride feels OK, but every now and then there's a bump,
or a sway...

The government and energy divisions of Glomart that own the
tracks tell us not to worry about those bumps and sways. But the
Glomart government divisions don't always have good information
about the condition of their tracks, and the Glomart energy
divisions don't want people to know what they know about the
condition of their tracks.

The overall reporting function on track conditions is handled by
little groups of Glomart bureaucrats (mostly economists, not
engineers or geologists) in Washington and Paris who gather
pieces of paper and computer files with numbers on them from the
Glomart owners, and then make guesses about the condition of the
tracks. So far their attitude has been "No worries! Full speed
ahead!"

Nevertheless, some sections of the tracks are beginning to show
their age. This is not surprising since most of the tracks were
laid down many decades ago and have never been replaced. They
had a lot of wear and tear even before the days of the Glomart
Express, and now it's much worse because the Express is so huge
and so fast.

There are rumors about a gully, a valley, and perhaps even a
precipice that the tracks must cross, but they haven't been laid
there yet. The Glomart economists (not engineers or geologists)
usually tell us those rumors are false and those obstacles don't
exist. Sometimes they tell us that "We'll cross that bridge
when we come to it." It's confusing.

Meanwhile, the track crews aren't laying the tracks nearly as
fast as the Glomart Express is moving. We're moving about four
times as fast as they're laying the tracks up ahead. Some folks
with sharp eyes up on the observation deck in the dome car think
they can see the end of the tracks way off in the distance...

To calm their fears, executives at Glomart have issued statements
on the PA system about how they're developing a new kind of
track called the New Hydrogen Economy track that will make the
Hydrocarbon Economy track obsolete and unnecessary. They say the
models are pretty much theoretical at this point, but lots of
Glomart economists are hard at work, and "Not to worry!"

The Glomart executives add that their Glomart economists are
surveying the road bed ahead for these new tracks ("Tinkerbelle
Tracks" according to skeptics) over Natural Gas Crisis Gully, Oil
Crisis Valley, and Coal Crisis Precipice - even though other
Glomart economists say those obstacles don't exist. This little
contradiction is starting to make some passengers on the train a
bit nervous.

There's some fighting up ahead too. People living near the
tracks in some areas don't like the plans of the Glomart
economists. Unfortunately for those people, the military
divisions of Glomart are more than happy to help out the Glomart
economists with personnel and all varieties of lethal hardware.
The government divisions of Glomart are happy to help out with
money.

One persistent rumor has it that the precipice up ahead is at the
edge of the ocean, and the Glomart economists are working on
designs for tracks that will float. These designs apparently
have lots of extra postulates. There's something in the designs
about Glomart nuclear reactors that will provide the energy to
overcome the laws of thermodynamics for those tracks.

Some anxious passengers think that if they could persuade the
Glomart executives to slow down the train, the bumps and sways
wouldn't be so worrisome, and maybe the track laying crews could
get further ahead. But the execs have so far refused to listen
to those passengers.

A few passengers are thinking they'd rather not wait to find out
what happens when the train catches up with the track laying
crews, or comes to the gully, or the valley, or the precipice.
They're thinking of taking their chances and jumping off now,
and fending for themselves in the forest. But most passengers
are too busy buying, selling, eating, drinking, talking,
sleeping, etc.

All the while in the background is the sound of clickety-clack,
clikety-clack, clickety-clack, clikety-clack, clickety-clack,
clikety-clack, clickety-clack, clikety-clack, clickety-clack,
clikety-clack, clickety-clack, clikety-clack, clickety-clack,
clikety-clack, clickety-clack...

Karl Davies
Northampton, MA, USA

PS: If this little parable doesn't make any sense, go to these
web sites to find eyes to see and ears to hear:
http://www.oilcrisis.org
http://www.dieoff.org/synopsis.htm
http://www.runningonempty.org