Monday, April 11, 2005
The Long Emergency: World Energy Crisis
What's going to happen as we start running out of cheap gas to guzzle?
It is no exaggeration to state that reliable supplies of cheap oil and natural gas underlie everything we identify as the necessities of modern life -- not to mention all of its comforts and luxuries: central heating, air conditioning, cars, airplanes, electric lights, inexpensive clothing, recorded music, movies, hip-replacement surgery, national defense -- you name it.
The few Americans who are even aware that there is a gathering global-energy predicament usually misunderstand the core of the argument. That argument states that we don't have to run out of oil to start having severe problems with industrial civilization and its dependent systems. We only have to slip over the all-time production peak and begin a slide down the arc of steady depletion.
"The Long Emergency is going to be a tremendous trauma for the human race. We will not believe that this is happening to us; that 200 years of modernity can be brought to its knees by a world-wide power shortage. The survivors will have to cultivate a religion of hope -- that is, a deep and comprehensive belief that humanity is worth carrying on. If there is any positive side to stark changes coming our way, it may be in the benefits of close communal relations, of having to really work intimately (and physically) with our neighbors, to be part of an enterprise that really matters and to be fully engaged in meaningful social enactments instead of being merely entertained to avoid boredom. Years from now, when we hear singing at all, we will hear ourselves, and we will sing with our whole hearts."
- - Adapted from The Long Emergency, 2005, by James Howard Kunstler
Related Links:
Nu Energy® News - Renewable Energy News for a Nu Age
PEAK OIL: A TURNING FOR MANKIND by Colin Campbell
Energy Independence - There has to be a day of reckoning. Many believe it is here already
Village Energy - Get Light Electric Vehicles from Village Energy
It is no exaggeration to state that reliable supplies of cheap oil and natural gas underlie everything we identify as the necessities of modern life -- not to mention all of its comforts and luxuries: central heating, air conditioning, cars, airplanes, electric lights, inexpensive clothing, recorded music, movies, hip-replacement surgery, national defense -- you name it.
The few Americans who are even aware that there is a gathering global-energy predicament usually misunderstand the core of the argument. That argument states that we don't have to run out of oil to start having severe problems with industrial civilization and its dependent systems. We only have to slip over the all-time production peak and begin a slide down the arc of steady depletion.
"The Long Emergency is going to be a tremendous trauma for the human race. We will not believe that this is happening to us; that 200 years of modernity can be brought to its knees by a world-wide power shortage. The survivors will have to cultivate a religion of hope -- that is, a deep and comprehensive belief that humanity is worth carrying on. If there is any positive side to stark changes coming our way, it may be in the benefits of close communal relations, of having to really work intimately (and physically) with our neighbors, to be part of an enterprise that really matters and to be fully engaged in meaningful social enactments instead of being merely entertained to avoid boredom. Years from now, when we hear singing at all, we will hear ourselves, and we will sing with our whole hearts."
- - Adapted from The Long Emergency, 2005, by James Howard Kunstler
Related Links:
Nu Energy® News - Renewable Energy News for a Nu Age
PEAK OIL: A TURNING FOR MANKIND by Colin Campbell
Energy Independence - There has to be a day of reckoning. Many believe it is here already
Village Energy - Get Light Electric Vehicles from Village Energy
