Energy, or lack thereof, is the increasingly important story of our time. The big blackout of August 14 showed just how vulnerable and dependent we are on a steady supply of inexpensive carbon-based energy. After the lights turned out, we hopped on our bikes and rode around Brooklyn and Manhattan to observe. Gliding through gridlock and watching office refugees, Manolo Blahnik's in-hand, hoofing it back to Brooklyn over the East River bridges, it occured to me that when the energy stops flowing it does more than just stall our computers, TV's and traffic signals. It forces us to take a moment to think about what the heck we'd do with ourselves and who we'd be without all of our modern, carbon-run devices and conveniences and the vast infrastructure required to keep them powered up.

A blackout creates something of an an identity crisis for people. It makes us stop and sit quietly in the dark with ourselves. It forces us, for a moment, to confront who we are, what we do and how we'd fend for ourselves if we were forcibly unplugged from our e-mail, light bulbs, infotainment, take-out food, cell phones, driving machines and other modern day services and conveniences. I'd bet that no less than ninety-five percent of the people I watched streaming over the bridge became instantaneously obsolete the moment the juice stopped flowing. No electricity meant that their job and their ability to do their job immediately disappeared. No juice meant that every single one of those people were rendered "useless." If the juice stayed off, what would we do with ourselves? Even if you had plenty of food and water. What would you do? Who would you be?

It's clear to a lot of smart, reasonable people that we are now at the very beginning of a serious and massive global energy crisis. There is lots of evidence pointing in this direction. Many geologists believe that we reached global peak oil production in 2000, meaning that the Earth will never yield as much petroleum as it did that year. Supply will never again increase no matter what the demand. The ongoing Enron and Cheney-esque manipulations of energy markets and policy also point to the notion that the insiders realize that we're now well into the zero-sum energy end-game. We've got a pretty good idea of how big the Earth's fossil fuel pie is at this point. And we know that it's not possible for it to get any bigger. When the world's most valuable and important resource dwindles and becomes limited, it's natural that the business of it should become more competitive, vicious and secretive. As it has -- particularly in Iraq. Energy is clearly the most compelling reason for our war in Iraq. It's simply impossible for us to continue to live the American Way of Life without having a sheriff's station alongside the world's biggest remaining supply of crude. Regardless of whether you believe that's a good or bad reason to have a war, if our leaders were more honest about why we are there, it would inevitably lead to a discussion about how to plan, prepare, and organize ourselves as a post-carbon society.

As the nation that grew, sprawled, and built itself throughout the 20th century around a steady and seemingly infinite supply of inexpensive fossil fuels, America is going to feel the pain of the impending crisis more than any other country. Based on our current leadership and tenor of national dialogue, I believe it's going to be very difficult for us to face this crisis. If it were only a technological, economic, or political issue, I think we could handle it. The blackout gave us a taste that there's much more to the "energy crisis" than that. Energy is growth, mobility, modernity, and freedom. The way Americans use energy is intimately tied to the way we see ourselves as individuals and as a people. Look no further than our obsession with the automobile. The car is America. America is cars. Motorism and the lifestyle we've built around motorism is, without question, the driving force behind our impending energy crisis, global environmental problems, and war and terror in the oil-rich Middle East. Energy is life force. We call it "power." The blackout of August 14 wasn't just a crisis of the electricity grid. It was the beginning of a crisis of personal and national identity linked to the way that Americans consume energy and use power.


3:10 PM | Link |