Transitioning to Sanity?
It seems to me to be an obvious fact that the world economy is addicted to cheap energy from fossil fuels. We are addicted to growth and using ever more energy as we are able. We are out of control.
One proof of this is the insane statement that Saudi Arabia is now going to maximize their output of oil for fear that continued high prices will dampen further consumption growth. Well, if true, it shows they are addicted to oil income and fear economic slowdown will cause oil prices to fall from their happy "$30/bbl" to an unhappy $10/bbl like has happened before.
I wonder - in the history of addiction, has ANYONE ever escaped addiction without a crash? Without trying every possible way to continue a doomed lifestyle?
The "addict's hope" is that something will come along and save him from making any hard decisions, at least for now. So even higher prices will just bring more denial and bargaining efforts.
I try to imagine what more I can do as an individual to reduce my personal dependence upon fossil fuels. I do the 3 R's - reduce, reuse, recycle. I bicycle for commuting, with mass transit for a backup. For the moment I don't even own a car, although I am helping to subsidize my girlfriend's minivan insurance costs. I participate in Xcel's "WindSource" program which adds $0.02/KWH to my electricity costs which supposedly covers extra costs of wind power, and supposedly will encourage expansion. I purchased a new furnace this winter - 94.1% efficient, and a new "high" 14.0 SEER central A/C, although I don't plan to use it much.
Still, I benefit from an economy that can make $1000 super-speed home computers, and $400 digital camera, and I'll purchase books online because it is convenient to me and shipping often free. I purchase food grown and transported using cheap energy. I grow some of my own veggies in my backyard garden, but I also freeze much of my surpluses which takes a fair amount of energy.
Perhaps gaining 2 roommates last month, I've increased my efficiency of my home - since it takes not much more energy to heat or light for 3 versus 1.
I think overall I do a lot to keep my lifestyle less dependent upon cheap/dirty fossil energy, AND I gain much myself from these efforts in lower cost of living, which I can put towards my mortgage, or invest into better efficiency, or just donate to others doing good things.
When I think of my job, working for a small Engineering consulting company, doing programming, I wonder how our company will do in the future as energy gets more expensive. Overall I think we're fairly strong company, minimal to no debt, but we depend on a world market for our consulting, and our money comes in partly from mining operations which are perhaps dependent upon cheap energy for their viability, as well as a strong economy that needs a constant influx of new materials. In short, we exist because the global economy exists. As an individual it seems, like the OPEC nations perhaps, that we'd better capitalize on opportunity while it still exists.
Meanwhile a future, one that doesn't support our skills/tools, may be coming and we might benefit by recognizing this and putting some of our eggs in a different basket. What skills might we need in the future? How can anyone know this? Is there any value at all in trying to imagine?
Ideally, any activity that is started before it is NEEDED, has a short term cost liability. A high school graduate might be happy with a $12/hour job, but considering longer term goals of a house, marriage, and children, it is clear that a college education might help get a better job in the future.
Knowing our ambition encourages investment of time and energy now for a brighter future, but how do you invest time and energy now into a darker future?
Periodic darkness is one thing, like the seasons, when you store up resources now for a hard time of winter, but what if there's no evidence the winter will ever end?
It is hard to imagine our future without oil, but it is a task we must take. Whether things will one day get better, it is clear to me that "The party is over", nearly [For cheap energy], and all our past success becomes a liability for the future - all our collective expectations, ambitions, and sheer mass of humanity.
As usual, I don't see much more I can do. The only "greater" step is to do something like "Experiments in new living" - setting up communities that practice self-sufficiency and sustainability.
perhaps it is a silly vision. We are "one world" afterall. How do you define the walls of sustainable trade? How do you refuse "easy street" when it is packaged so prettily? How does an addict, surrounded by addicts DECLINE to continue the easy path?
I look for easy boundaries, but they're all arbitrary. If everything must be judged on a sustainability criterion, life will be pretty boring, but if nothing is judged, then we're dooming our future.
Perhaps in human past, tribes of people defined "rules" of living which supported contining the success of the past. Rules are judged as "morality" or ethics, but really they are honest decisions individuals can make.
If I'm in a field of 1 million flowers, picking one is "harmless" because they will come back, and I'm just one. But if a million people each pick a flower, we may destroy all the flowers for the future, even if they are "renewable".
Ethics are relative because they must consider the circumstances of their use.
I'll end with a quote:
"There is nothing so blinding as success. ...
Success has the vicious consequence
that it seems to breed almost inevitably
the conviction that it will necessarily continue.
Success is a poor guide to wise policy.
Failure at least often leads to reflection;
success seldom does."
-Immanuel Wallerstein
One proof of this is the insane statement that Saudi Arabia is now going to maximize their output of oil for fear that continued high prices will dampen further consumption growth. Well, if true, it shows they are addicted to oil income and fear economic slowdown will cause oil prices to fall from their happy "$30/bbl" to an unhappy $10/bbl like has happened before.
I wonder - in the history of addiction, has ANYONE ever escaped addiction without a crash? Without trying every possible way to continue a doomed lifestyle?
The "addict's hope" is that something will come along and save him from making any hard decisions, at least for now. So even higher prices will just bring more denial and bargaining efforts.
I try to imagine what more I can do as an individual to reduce my personal dependence upon fossil fuels. I do the 3 R's - reduce, reuse, recycle. I bicycle for commuting, with mass transit for a backup. For the moment I don't even own a car, although I am helping to subsidize my girlfriend's minivan insurance costs. I participate in Xcel's "WindSource" program which adds $0.02/KWH to my electricity costs which supposedly covers extra costs of wind power, and supposedly will encourage expansion. I purchased a new furnace this winter - 94.1% efficient, and a new "high" 14.0 SEER central A/C, although I don't plan to use it much.
Still, I benefit from an economy that can make $1000 super-speed home computers, and $400 digital camera, and I'll purchase books online because it is convenient to me and shipping often free. I purchase food grown and transported using cheap energy. I grow some of my own veggies in my backyard garden, but I also freeze much of my surpluses which takes a fair amount of energy.
Perhaps gaining 2 roommates last month, I've increased my efficiency of my home - since it takes not much more energy to heat or light for 3 versus 1.
I think overall I do a lot to keep my lifestyle less dependent upon cheap/dirty fossil energy, AND I gain much myself from these efforts in lower cost of living, which I can put towards my mortgage, or invest into better efficiency, or just donate to others doing good things.
When I think of my job, working for a small Engineering consulting company, doing programming, I wonder how our company will do in the future as energy gets more expensive. Overall I think we're fairly strong company, minimal to no debt, but we depend on a world market for our consulting, and our money comes in partly from mining operations which are perhaps dependent upon cheap energy for their viability, as well as a strong economy that needs a constant influx of new materials. In short, we exist because the global economy exists. As an individual it seems, like the OPEC nations perhaps, that we'd better capitalize on opportunity while it still exists.
Meanwhile a future, one that doesn't support our skills/tools, may be coming and we might benefit by recognizing this and putting some of our eggs in a different basket. What skills might we need in the future? How can anyone know this? Is there any value at all in trying to imagine?
Ideally, any activity that is started before it is NEEDED, has a short term cost liability. A high school graduate might be happy with a $12/hour job, but considering longer term goals of a house, marriage, and children, it is clear that a college education might help get a better job in the future.
Knowing our ambition encourages investment of time and energy now for a brighter future, but how do you invest time and energy now into a darker future?
Periodic darkness is one thing, like the seasons, when you store up resources now for a hard time of winter, but what if there's no evidence the winter will ever end?
It is hard to imagine our future without oil, but it is a task we must take. Whether things will one day get better, it is clear to me that "The party is over", nearly [For cheap energy], and all our past success becomes a liability for the future - all our collective expectations, ambitions, and sheer mass of humanity.
As usual, I don't see much more I can do. The only "greater" step is to do something like "Experiments in new living" - setting up communities that practice self-sufficiency and sustainability.
perhaps it is a silly vision. We are "one world" afterall. How do you define the walls of sustainable trade? How do you refuse "easy street" when it is packaged so prettily? How does an addict, surrounded by addicts DECLINE to continue the easy path?
I look for easy boundaries, but they're all arbitrary. If everything must be judged on a sustainability criterion, life will be pretty boring, but if nothing is judged, then we're dooming our future.
Perhaps in human past, tribes of people defined "rules" of living which supported contining the success of the past. Rules are judged as "morality" or ethics, but really they are honest decisions individuals can make.
If I'm in a field of 1 million flowers, picking one is "harmless" because they will come back, and I'm just one. But if a million people each pick a flower, we may destroy all the flowers for the future, even if they are "renewable".
Ethics are relative because they must consider the circumstances of their use.
I'll end with a quote:
"There is nothing so blinding as success. ...
Success has the vicious consequence
that it seems to breed almost inevitably
the conviction that it will necessarily continue.
Success is a poor guide to wise policy.
Failure at least often leads to reflection;
success seldom does."
-Immanuel Wallerstein
posted by Ares Olympus at 5:14 PM
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