Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
How do we transition to a low carbon energy system when plentiful resources are no longer available? Our past Horn of Plenty has become a trap from which we in the developed nations increasingly find difficult to extract ourselves.
At the mention of our “fossil economy” or “fossil civilization”, most of us probably think immediately of “fossil fuels”. But as Mary Soderstrom’s recent book points out, not only our energy supply but also our most important building material has origins in fossilized ancient life.
The overshoot of human activity is driving the planet from the stability of the Holocene to the instability of the Anthropocene.
Gradually, and then suddenly. That’s how exponential growth can ruin your day, undo your family, evaporate your economy, destroy your climate, crush an empire and destabilize a planet.
Growth of production is central to the core ideology of the current economic system, to the idea of “development” and “progress”. It is central to the legitimacy of the people who run the global economy. Without it there is a legitimacy crisis.
Richard Heinberg on his new book Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels.
Imagine there was a pill you could take every day that would provide you with wealth, freedom, and luxuries beyond the imagination of even the wealthiest kings of yesteryear. Well, guess what? You’re already taking it. And it’s called Petrolify®.
•The Fossil Fuels War
•On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs
•Big Data, Disaster Resilience and Lord of the Rings
•Dreaming of Uncivilisation
