Richard Heinberg in Sonoma
By Stephanie Hiller
With all that’s going on in our country and throughout the world, who has the bandwidth to attend a lecture on climate change? But the current political madness notwithstanding, climate change may yet pose the greatest threat of all.
On March 15, Richard Heinberg spoke in Sonoma on the topic, “What would a Renewable Energy Transition Look Like,” reviewing his seven-point plan for an effective response to the planetary perils ahead. Heinberg is a senior fellow with the Post Carbon Institute in Santa Rosa and one of the world’s leading advocates for shifting from reliance on fossil fuels to renewables. The talk was sponsored by Praxis Peace Institute.
“It’s all about energy,” he began, explaining that energy transitions have occurred in the past, and have been transformative; think of the agricultural revolution. But during the past 200 years the planet has experienced a tremendous acceleration in the use of energy, due to the discovery of how to get oil and coal out of the ground. That transformed human society and now threatens the future with a whole panoply of ominous consequences due to the build-up of carbon in the atmosphere. We reached peak oil, he says, but fracking provided a temporary fossil fuel rescue. Now, “Drillers are running out of places to drill,” he reminded us.
There is a fundamental reality that we all need to know, he said. “A rapid, renewable energy transition is easily the most ambitious enterprise our species has ever undertaken.” And then he offered his seven-step plan to do it.
First, he said, we need to cap global fossil fuel use and lower it annually. Second, we need to manage energy demand fairly, and the tactic is rationing, a proven method for controlling consumption.
Third, we have to find ways to manage the public’s material expectations for a satisfactory lifestyle. And, we should encourage population decline, which is already happening in India and China. And we should reinforce women’s right to choose.
We will, of course, need to encourage technological research and development. Engineers are already at work on low-energy technologies. And we’ll have to triage on all those old machines that spew carbon and gobble up energy. Airplanes, for example. Big energy consumers . And, he adds, we need to cut out the overuse of consumer electronics. “You get your first smart phone when you’re eighteen years old and after that you fix it when it breaks. Stop upgrading endlessly.” Computers, he points out, are huge energy hogs.
Finally, and this Heinberg considers most essential, “Geo-engineering is unlikely to work. We have to help nature absorb excess carbon through carbon farming, reforestation and so forth…developing a lifestyle based on indigeneity,” a concept he elaborated toward the end of his talk.
In other words, he said, “We have to change the way we live.” And therein, Heinberg says, lies the crux of the problem. “The way we live is the problem.” We have to change our lifestyle, consume less, live closer to the land – indigenously – build community with our neighbors, become humble.”
Does he think any of this will happen soon? He repeated the warning he offered at the beginning of his talk: “Don’t look for a happy ending here. The obstacles that stand in the way – politics and capitalism – are formidable.”
But there’s work to be done, is that his message?
“Yes,” he answered in a subsequent email. “I am indeed trying to wake people up. The folks who really care about climate change and its threats to future generations and to the biosphere of our planet are the ‘good guys’ – but unfortunately most of them are laboring under the false impression that climate change is a ‘problem’ that’s solvable with technology. It’s actually a symptom of a much deeper issue –the tendency of some human societies to try to escape environmental limits with technology and the capture of other people’s resources.”
To which Heinberg concludes, “We are biological organisms subject to environmental limits, and the only path to long-term survival is to reduce our population and consumption levels to fit within those limits. That’s a lesson Indigenous peoples learned through trial and error. Renewable energy technology is an adaptive strategy in our transition to a global ecosystem of Indigenous cultures. It’s not an end in itself. It’s colonizer methadone.”
Heinberg’s most recent book, “Our Renewable Future,” is available from Island Press. A deeper explanation of the seven steps may be found at Common Dreams, www.commondreams.org/opinion/real-renewable-energy-transition.
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