Peak Oil: A New Paradigm Suggested Pt 2

 

The economic paradigm we are currently engaged in must change in order to end our oil obsessed economy simply because no alternative energy resource will yield equal energy outputs. A realistic shared vision of what global prosperity might look like in an age of depleting resources is required to align economic and social aspirations, and de-couple monetary growth from synonymy with prosperity. Prosperity must become tantamount with values such as the environment, grass-roots democracy, and social justice. Importantly, global society must share these ideals; it would be futile for one state to re-evaluate their perceptions of prosperity if others are unwilling to do so (links/citations in original quote). [1]

This is a follow-up to an interesting paper offered by a graduate student at Queen’s University in Belfast, Ireland. The reality of peak oil’s impact on economies and lifestyles worldwide are nicely summarized, although the suggested approach—in effect establishing new dynamics and priorities for economies around the world will surely generate more than a fair share of denials and disputes. This author is not the first to make similar pronouncements about adaptations needed, but with each passing day where deniers have their way, the urgency of considering both what’s at stake and what is needed grows.

No matter how ardent a peak oil advocate might be, I’m reasonably confident that each and every one of them shares the same thoughts as I do: I would love to be wrong! There’s very little about the impact of peak oil which generates much excitement! Life as we know it will change in almost every way imaginable, and some that are not.

Optimists like me want to believe that when all is said and done, we’ll be managing just fine, thank you very much. But given the scope of changes and adaptations needed, it’s hard to be completely confident—all the more so given the denial nonsense and other denunciations which still fill the airwaves.

That realization is compounded by another: so many are so firmly entrenched in their own perspectives and objectives that to even consider the levels of cooperation and commitment which peak oil will mandate in due course is, for them, simply—literally—unthinkable. No fault to be assessed in that regard. Human nature and the hopes for progress along the same paths as others have already traveled are understandable impediments to what must be done.

But to still our voices in resignation is to give up one day too soon, and so on we go, trying to find yet another way to reach just enough others who then come to the same realizations and understandings in their own way (as it should). There’s nothing to even hint that getting enough on board will be easy. Likewise, there’s even less certainty that the necessity of so much adaptation to and transitions into new paradigms will be met with anything other than more objections and inclinations to just go back to the comforts of the familiar past.

While we would love to be proven wrong, facts and reality convince us we’re anything but wrong. Our choice is to give in, give up, and hope that the best we hope for won’t be so bad after all.

Not much of a choice, actually, if the future matters.

peak oil matters