City of the Future

Peak Oil and the Politics of the Future

If the peak and decline of fossil fuels inaugurates the greatest political, social and economic transformation of the modern era, what can one speculate about the political landscape of the future? Chances are, like everything else, politics will not be business as usual. In an ideal world, the enormous stress of oil and gas depletion would jumpstart bipartisan, nationally supported initiatives that are non-starters at the moment: a crash shift from truck shipping to a rebuilt and newly electrified rail system, a rapid increase in support and use of public transit, a relocalization of economies, a return to less energy-intensive, organic agriculture, etc.

But we don’t live in an ideal world. Politics, like everything else in a post-peak world, is likely to have a dark side, but one which doesn’t necessarily follow the pat storylines of the present. For hints of what might lie ahead, it’s worth thinking about the widespread frustration and anger we have already seen in reaction to the moderately higher gasoline prices of the last few years. Pundits and politicians, all too eager to exploit an emotional issue, sense blood. In such cases, hard truths are usually the first casualty.

Take the case of Raymond J. Learsy, an author and blogger for the left-leaning Huffington Post who on several occasions has made broadside attacks on the peak oil “theory”. To call Learsy’s recent reasoning for why “Peak Oil is Snake Oil!” nonsensical would be too generous. To sum up his argument (as far as I can understand it): Leary believes that the theory of peak oil is a concoction of the oil industry in order to justify current high prices.

Reflections on Permaculture

Thirty years ago, two Australian ecologists began developing something they called “Permaculture”—a movement and discipline which was later described as “a design system for creating sustainable human environments.” Initially conceived of as a means to achieve low-input, high-yield, sustainable agriculture, the conception of Permaculture has since expanded to embrace not just “permanent agriculture” but “permanent culture”—because, in the words of co-founder Bill Mollison, “cultures cannot survive long without a sustainable agricultural base and landuse ethic.”

Last week I attended the beginning of my first Permaculture design class at the Inwood Hill Park Nature Center on the northern tip of Manhattan. While it may seem strange to be studying sustainable agriculture in the heart of New York City, part of Permaculture’s brilliance is that its principles can be applied at virtually any scale, from a small farm to a tiny plot of land or on an apartment rooftop.