Richard Heinberg: Losing Control

Humankind has control issues, and they


Today, as the result of cheap energy and the technologies it fuels, we enjoy climate-controlled living and shopping areas; our physicians cure previously fatal illnesses; we conquer problems of distance and time without a thought or care.

When I say “we,” I am of course referring to the collectivity of our kind: there are plenty of people in the world today who are still relatively powerless. But just knowing that some world leader, financier, inventor, or engineer is able to do a particular thing nurtures a shared sense of our growing, ultimately limitless capability.