One of the constant retorts heard mostly from economists, is that all efforts to reduce oil consumption just creates an incentive for someone else to consume it instead – the old Jevon’s Paradox. The best way that I have come up with to answer to Jevon’s Paradox is through a combination of efficiency gains and society-level agreements on total consumption. Richard Heinberg has outlined his own ideas on a society-level protocol to deal with oil depletion in a equitable and peaceful manner.
In Montreal, there is a conference discussing climate change in an air of pessimism about global agreements. The Kyoto Protocol, despite coming into effect in February 2005, is largely seen as a failure since high-growth developing nations like India and China have publicly stated that they would never accept limits on their emissions and the Bush administration has refused to sign.
Despite the lack of Federal level action on climate change there is a growing movement among America’s mayors led by Seattle’s mayor Greg Nichels to take action on climate change which now has 192 cities signed up, including New York, LA, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and even Las Vegas. If your local community has not signed up, please lobby your local officials to take action. If they have signed up, hold them to task and don’t let them have their soundbyte without taking clear actions to reduce emissions.
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