Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
In 1876, Marx’s collaborator, Frederich Engels, offered a prophetic caveat: “Let us not… flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human conquest over nature. For each such conquest takes its revenge on us.”
If anything merits drawing the filibuster sword out of its sheath, it is the energy bill that came out of a House/Senate conference this week.
The US House and Senate have finally passed the long-awaited energy bill. The response from several US newspapers: “We’re underwhelmed.” Also, the EPA held back a report on fuel efficiency until after the bill was passed.
Writer Steven Lagavulin argues that the comprehensive nature of the problems our society faces in the coming years will not be met by either political or technological means. Instead, we need to face that humankind has reached a critical turning point in which everything that defines modern civilization is about to be washed away. As such, the best response may be to break away from the sinking ship and begin rebuilding now, even before the crisis is upon us.
As fossil fuels deplete, especially oil and natural gas, will we be able to maintain the solidarity and consent that make modern democracies so stable? Or will we each fall back on our competitive natures as we struggle for our share of dwindling resources.
Roscoe Bartlett, the Maryland congressman who has spoken on peak oil on the floor of the House, had an extensive conversation with the president today on the matter and said he was “very happy with the meeting.” While he declined to release any details, the fact that he was happy with the meeting is a hopeful sign.
What we are witnessing is the collapse of the politics of left and right and the replacement of those politics with what I call the politics of survival. Those who come to understand the gravity of our energy situation quickly abandon their previous political views and instead focus pragmatically on how we can make a successful energy transition.
At some point — maybe 10 years from now, maybe 20 — the energy bill currently wending its way through the Senate will be seen as an enormously significant lost opportunity…any politicians who care about the future economic, environmental and political stability of this country should right now be seeking to end the de facto subsidies for the oil and gas industries, aggressively promote research into new forms of ethanol and biofuel, limit automobile fuel consumption, and tax or cap the carbon emissions created by the burning of fossil fuels, which most scientists believe to be an important cause of global warming.
In my last blog on the Nicaraguan energy price hikes, I noted that the Nicaragua of today could be the richer Western nations of tomorrow some years down the energy depletion slope.
During the week of World Environment Day, it seemed possible that the eco revolution did exist, had surfaced briefly like a submarine, full of imaginative problem solvers….Richard Heinberg was also encouraging. “It only takes ten to twenty percent of the population knowing what is going on for the rest of the country to be okay”, he told us. [Detailed, on-the-ground report about the recent UN conference in San Francisco.]
A new Yale University research survey of 1,000 adults nationwide reveals that while Americans are deeply divided on many issues, they overwhelmingly believe that the United States is too dependent on imported oil.
The survey shows a vast majority of the public also wants to see government action to develop new “clean” energy sources, including solar and wind power as well as hydrogen cars.
A definite trend is afoot. What we can call The Convergence of America is just ahead. It will not be as in the past, but more in spirit as we grapple with the loss of petroleum and the end of economic growth. Rather than as a nationalistic single entity, we will come together in the knowledge that our separate and equal, diverse bioregions are our real homelands.
In my long career of concern over oil pollution — from my days of serving the oil industry, to fighting it, to predicting the imminent end of abundant supply — I have never been as exhilarated as now to think that a change is in the wind. [Report on conversation between Lundberg and Rep. Roscoe Bartlett]
