How Fossil Fuels Made the Human Race Dependent on a Finite Resource

Carey King of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin discusses how the last 70 years of economic and population growth have been fueled by the transition to petroleum, how a decreasing supply of it has increased political polarization, and what the future might hold as supplies continue to dwindle.

Carey’s book, The Economic Superorganism: Beyond Competing Narratives on Energy, Growth, and Policy can be purchased here.

Additional reading can be found here:

• A summary of Carey’s latest paper on the economic dependence on resource consumption: http://careyking.com/new-harmoney-insights-into-the-interdependence-of-growth-structure-size-and-resource-consumption-of-the-economy/
• The full paper referenced above: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs41247-021-00093-8
• A Lack of Systematic Thinking Keeps America from Staying Great, Energy Institute Commentary, January, 2018: https://energy.utexas.edu/news/lack-systematic-thinking-keeps-america-staying-great
• The Rising Cost of Resources and Global Indicators of Change, American Scientist, 103 (6), November/December, 2015: https://www.americanscientist.org/article/the-rising-cost-of-resources-and-global-indicators-of-change
• Delusions of Grandeur in Building a Low-Carbon Future, Earth Magazine, August 2017, 32-37, online link. https://www.earthmagazine.org/article/delusions-grandeur-building-low-carbon-future

This episode is part of a non-partisan political podcast series called: “You Don’t Have to Yell”, produced by Dan Sally, Dedham Massachusetts.

Only 38% of Americans believe our two party systems does an adequate job of representing the people.

57% believe a third major party is needed.

You Don’t Have to Yell features third-party candidates, electoral reform advocates, and other subject matter experts with the goal of breaking the two-party duopoly and bringing multi-party democracy to the United States.