Abstract
Human history has often been described as a progressive relinquishment from environmental constraints. Now, it seems, we have come full circle. The ecological irrationalities associated with industrial societies have a lengthy history, and our purpose is not to catalogue this litany of horrors. Collectively, however, we have crossed certain literal and figurative thresholds. Our ability to commit such acts of irrationality unconsciously, obliviously, or simply nonchalantly is no longer a luxury we enjoy. Two intersecting moments define this historic nexus. The mounting evidence for global climate change, now unequivocally attributed to socio-economic activities, has accumulated to the extent that today even insistent deniers must concede defeat in any but the most closeted of social circles. Simultaneously, as fossil fuel seekers come home with ever-shrinking finds, the end of easy oil and the easy wealth it has generated is upon us, rendering non-conventional fossil fuels the next most attractive option to those states and corporations that control the extraction and delivery of energy resources. The development of such non-conventional fuels does nothing to alleviate either climate change or peak oil, however. On the contrary, the tremendous energy requirements for extraction and processing of these low quality fuels translate into an abysmal and ever-decreasing return on energy investments, escalating greenhouse gas emissions, and other environmental disruptions. These two facts – growing reliance on non-conventional fuels and increasing scale of environmental disruption – are not merely co-incidental: as “easy” global reserves of fossil fuels in general, and oil in particular, become depleted, the remaining fossil fuels are far more difficult to source, and hence environmentally, socially, and economically more costly to extract (Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy, 2008).
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Notes
- 1.
To recover one barrel of bitumen by in situ extraction, 1,000 cubic feet of natural gas is required, and 250 cubic feet of natural gas is needed for extraction by open-pit mining (Alberta Chamber of Resources 2004). These figures do not include the energy consumed in the upgrading, refining and transport of fuels.
- 2.
What that number is poses a frustrating source of elusion for empirical researchers, but conceptually it is determined by the level of accumulated behavioural change that is needed to overwhelm the absorption capacity of the existing social system.
- 3.
Reported at: http://www.tarsandswatch.org/overwhelming-majority-albertans-support-pause-new-oil-sands-approvals. Accessed Dec 29 2010.
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Davidson, D.J., Gismondi, M. (2011). Look Who’s Talking. In: Challenging Legitimacy at the Precipice of Energy Calamity. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0287-9_1
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