The Clean, Green Economy

“Peak Oil” is the time when half of the oil in the world has been harvested, and all harvests thereafter will be harder, slower, and more expensive. It’s a place where the price of oil has nowhere to go but up. Many people think we’re there. A few think we’re past it. Only a very few think we’ve a long way to go (and they’re probably the same people that think the current warming trend is just plain normal, and Elvis was kidnapped by aliens).

Peak oil is the beginning of the inevitable fall of the oil-driven economy. What I want to know is when is the inevitable rise of the alternate-energy economy? Are we there yet? Will peak oil by itself drive us there?

I’d say no, since of course we have the collapsing economy and world-war-three-over-energy-resources scenario to avoid first (and we're on our way to that, maybe as close as we are to peak oil). But assuming we have the political delicacy to avoid the worst case, what do we need to start the upwelling of the right moves to free us of oil? There are some nice roadmaps being developed. The IPCC report has some specific ideas. I’m reading a book called “Apollo’s Fire” by Congressman Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks. It has a series of action items in it. There are other sources of good ideas out there, too. So we’re becoming rich with reasonable plans, and need to pick and choose and move forward to the clean, green economy.

That's what I want for Christmas: the see the inevitable rise of the clean, green economy.