Energy reporter Andrew Nikiforuk says energy dependence has created plantation economy

Investigative reporter Andrew Nikiforuk is speaking Wednesday in Vancouver about the challenges of weaning ourselves off oil. The event is free and is being held October 3 at at 7 p.m. at the Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, SFU Woodward's, 149 West Hastings. Admission is free. Presented by SFU's Vancity Office of Community Engagement and The Tyee, whose editor David Beers is hosting. Nikiforuk's address is keying off his new book The Energy of Slaves: Oil and the New Servitude.
In a preview, The Tyee quoted Nikiforuk in part as follows. (It promises to be a provocative evening):

"We have largely imposed its values and attitudes on mechanized slaves fueled by hydrocarbons. In the process we have created unique plantation economies based on the use and proliferation of energy slaves. And like the slaveholders of old, we, too, have become fat, incompetent and lazy. What we have gained in comfort, we have lost in vitality."