Peak Oil is You
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Page added on August 11, 2009
Thoughts from Alcatraz
More than a month has passed since the ASPO/TheOilDrum summit at the Libera Universit
Whilst avoiding that sort of social breakdown is the underlying motivation of all those giving their time to the energy problems, it may be exactly there that Society is set to go. As Nate would explain in his wrap-up address, with everyone set to compete their way into the 20% of individuals that own 80% of the wealth, northing short of re-instating growth will do. In his words “we need to compete for something else”. It is very possible that Social Policy will need to find a larger place in this whole fossil fuels debate. How to do so without darting right down into daily politics faits-divers is the difficult thing.
Another important point common to many speakers is the necessity of changing the current Economic Paradigm in order to avoid the outright onset of the Social convulsions discussed above. Tweak the Market in order to avoid the depletion of rare chemical elements and foster the use of more common ones, expand the recycling processes to keep matter circulating in the Economy, manage food consumption reducing dependence on imports, change rules to facilitate the build up of alternative energy infrastructure, were among the strategies discussed. The speakers at the summit had funny names for it: “Managed Austerity”, “War Time Economics”; at school there was a much more recognizable definition for it: Planned Economics.
Unfortunately, today the term Planned Economics carries with it a political connotation that distorts its true intention. Planed Economics is about setting long term goals and objectives and devising the strategies and tactics to achieve them. It doesn’t have to be about ending or limiting private entrepreneurship; on the contrary, it can be used as a means to actually foster it, but in ways that lead to a different overall outcome for Society.
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