how Cuba survived Peak Oil

Excellent movie - worth watching the whole thing.

Jack Spirko did a podcast recently about how Cuba and the economic problems that followed the collapse of USSR.

Very humorous. I especially liked the line at about 2:07, "artificial peak oil imposed on them...is actually a model for what is to take place in the rest of the world." How unintentionally prophetic.

What Cuba really suffered was a Peak Subsidy Crisis under a stifling socialist structure which was averted with the rise of Chavez in Venezuela.

I am not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Cuba made some excellent innovations in agricultural reform (ironically, reverting to pre-revolutionary practices), permaculture and human and animal powered cultivation during that period, but without Chavez, Castro's Cuba would have collapsed. If Maduro loses this month's election, Cuba will face another Peak Subsidy Crisis. Let's hope the Castro brothers are better prepared this time.

It seems that Cuba's biggest export now is Cubans. Tens of thousands are emigrating, or stationed, to ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America) countries every year.

Wow that was an excellent video. To top it all off there was another report on our news about how our Governor is trying to find ways to reduce air pollution, so I thought "BINGO!" I wrote him an email and enclosed a link to the video. It can't hurt to make suggestions!

27:05 - "Today more than 80% of Cuba's agriculture is Organic"

I've been there. And I have to say that their suburban and urban landscape is green and luscious.


I do think that chemical fertilizer imports have again gained a foothold in Cuba; as their economy regains some of it's foreign currency acquisitions through tourism and exports. And of course the "Oro Negro" is all from Venezuela. The gas-stations are honest at least and advertise "Black Gold" on their signposts!