RAYMOND DE YOUNG “As it becomes more acceptable to openly talk about the need to downshift our personal material expectations, a few geographic locations (e.g., Flint, Detroit) will come to realize this same need exists at the community level. In 2012, in a few locations, new governmental institutions will emerge (e.g., Departments of Descent) tasked with creating and implementing policies and procedures that intentionally shrink the services, infrastructure and political boundaries of cities, towns and villages. This intentional transition will not initially be driven by an understanding of the limits posed by declining net energy; the sole driver will seem to be local economic constraints. Nonetheless, the process will create a community-level response consistent with emerging bio-physical limits. And the very existence of these new institutions may diminish our psychological confidence in the role and predictability of centralized economic and political systems in our future affairs.”
Raymond De Young is Associate Professor of Environmental Psychology and Planning at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment (www-personal.umich.edu/~rdeyoung). He is co-author of The Localization Reader: Adapting to the Coming Downshift. Cambridge: MIT Press (2012).
Source. 2 Jan 2012. Commentary: 2012 Predictions. ASPO USA Peak Oil Review.
Categories
-
Recent Posts
- Battery Energy storage batteries (BESS) too complex to ever be commercial
- New war and energy alliances over next resource wars
- Book review of “Siege: Trump Under fire”
- Why do people vote for Trump?
- Book review of “Pandemic Politics: The Deadly Toll of Partisanship in the Age of COVID”
- The evolution of the Republican party from 1960 to 2024: from moderate democracy to extreme authoritarianism
- Why some people are conservative and others liberal
- Book review: Bring the War Home: The white power movement & paramilitary America
- Book review: How Democracies Die
- Book Review “Conservatives without Conscience” by John Dean
- Book review of “The Power Worshippers. Inside the dangerous rise of religious nationalism”
- Fox news estranges millions of families and instills hate and fear in its cult members
- Book review of “Deer Hunting with Jesus” Best book on why people vote for Trump
- Population growth creates climate crisis, says environmental scientist
- Book review of “Democracy in Chains”, the history of how extremist Republicans stealthily stole our Democracy