Influx

There’s a provocative piece by George Monbiot in today’s Guardian, where he talks about the failure of politicians to grasp the concept that there are either higher energy costs from renewable sources or no energy at all.

People are still thinking about alternative energy as alternative to oil, but what if there isn’t one? Higher prices are the likely new reality.

Brands thinking about the future are going to have to realize that consumer’s disposable income is going to decrease based on increased expenditures on items that we’ve previously taken for granted; fuel, energy and food. In addition, the knock on impact of this on costs of goods will be significant.

The prospect of decreasing standards of living looms large, but this appears to be the price we are paying for a reliance on an oil-based economy.

“Almost everyone seems to agree: governments now face a choice
between saving the planet and saving the economy. As recession looms,
the political pressure to abandon green policies intensifies. A report
published yesterday by Ernst & Young suggests that the EU’s puny
carbon target will raise energy bills by 20% over the next 12 years.
Last week the prime minister’s advisers admitted to the Guardian that
his renewable energy plans were “on the margins” of what people will
tolerate.

But these fears are based on a false assumption: that
there is a cheap alternative to a green economy. Last week New
Scientist reported a survey of oil industry experts, which found that
most of them believe global oil supplies will peak by 2010. If they are
right, the game is up. A report published by the US department of
energy in 2005 argued that unless the world begins a crash programme of
replacements 10 or 20 years before oil peaks, a crisis “unlike any yet
faced by modern industrial society” is unavoidable.

If the world
is sliding into recession, it’s partly because governments believed
that they could choose between economy and ecology. The price of oil is
so high and it hurts so much because there has been no serious effort
to reduce our dependency.”

Posted by Ed Cotton