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Chokepoint: The New Urgency of Ending Our Fossil Fuel Addiction

For the past couple of decades, we at Post Carbon Institute have been pointing out that a transition to alternative energy sources will necessarily be slow and incomplete. Given that oil is a depleting, polluting, non-renewable resource, industrial society is due for a reckoning. We are all in an extended Wile E. Coyote moment.

More than 50 countries are meeting in Colombia to explore how economies can move away from coal, oil and gas through “complementary” multilateral negotiations.

As the planet strains under endless GDP growth, econometrician Gaya Herrington makes the case for a “wellbeing economy” that trades our obsession with more for a future of enough: redirecting innovation, work and policy toward human flourishing and healthy ecosystems within the Earth’s limits.

Solar power has enabled off-grid living and low-carbon energy, but its industrial supply chains and large-scale rollout come with environmental costs we cannot ignore.

Carrying about 20% of the world’s traded oil and gas, the Strait of Hormuz is a critical global chokepoint. Even if it remains open, restoring full energy and material flows will take time, with ongoing consequences to global supply systems.

The 24-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, through which roughly 20 percent of world oil shipments pass, is an obvious pinch point for a vital industrial resource. But it also serves as an apt metaphor for the brittle global supply chains upon which the entire economy depends.

This event was an introduction to our new Resilience+ Deep Dives, a series of events and curated materials that can help anyone better understand important aspects of the climate crisis.

For more than 40 years, Kumi Naidoo has been a voice for social, economic and environmental justice. To get a glimpse into Kumi’s story and what he will talk about in our May 14th event, watch this interview with Post Carbon Institute’s Asher Miller.

My aim is not to discourage people working toward an energy transition, but to insist that we develop a realistic plan for energy descent, rather than insisting on foolish dreams of eternal consumer abundance by means other than fossil fuels.