Is The Party Over?
Richard Heinberg has been writing about the end of infinite resources and infinite upward consumption and infinite growth for some time: The Party’s Over (2003); Peak Everything (2007); Blackout (2009). [He'll be in Healdsburg, CA on Earth Day, April 17, 2010]
Here is a short essay in The Oil Drum, condensed from a longer one in the Post Carbon Institute. Good thought protein.
What if the economy doesn’t recover?
In 2008 the U.S. economy tripped down a steep, rocky slope. Employment levels plummeted; so did purchases of autos and other consumer goods. Property values crashed; foreclosure and bankruptcy rates bled. For states, counties, cities, and towns; for manufacturers, retailers, and middle- and low-income families, the consequences were—and continue to be—catastrophic. Other nations were soon caught up in the undertow.
In late 2009, the economy showed some signs of renewed vigor. Understandably, everyone wants it to get “back to normal.” But here’s a disturbing thought: What if that is not possible? What if the goalposts have been moved, the rules rewritten, the game changed? What if the decades-long era of economic growth based on ever-increasing rates of resource extraction, manufacturing, and consumption is over, finished, and done? What if the economic conditions that all of us grew up expecting to continue practically forever were merely a blip on history’s timeline?
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March 10th, 2010 @ 9:05 pm
If you’d like to meet Heinberg, he’ll be right here in downtown San Rafael on March 18:
Richard Heinberg, Damon Connolly and Hunter Stern to Address Climate and Energy at Green New Deal Hearing in San Rafael on March 18
The next Green New Deal hearing is scheduled for Thursday, March 18 at 7 p.m. in the San Rafael City Council Chambers (1400 Fifth Street, San Rafael, CA). That hearing will focus on climate and energy. Guests include Richard Heinberg, Damon Connolly, and Hunter Stern.
Heinberg, author of nine books including The Party’s Over, Peak Everything and Blackout: Coal Climate and the Last Energy Crisis, is a senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute and widely regarded as one of the world’s most effective communicators about energy and peak oil. San Rafael City Councilperson Connolly is a member of the Marin Energy Authority board of directors. Hunter Stern is a labor representative from IBEW Local 1245.