The Myth of Urban Self Sufficiency

Abstract

Beginning in the mid nineteenth century, the U.S. economy transitioned from a largely rural society, still based predominantly on agriculture and renewable resources, to an urban society dependent to an increasing extent on non-renewable resources and cheap fossil energy, and a globalized industrial agricultural and manufacturing system. The shift from a society based on renewable natural resource flows to non-renewable resource stocks is one of the most important and unprecedented transitions in the history of mankind. This shift allowed for massive human population growth, unprecedented exploitation of the earth’s resources, increasing per capita wealth for many, and the dramatic growth of urban areas. Renewable resources are those that can be replaced in a relatively short amount of time such as agricultural crops, trees, and fish. Non-renewable resource stocks are those such as fossil fuels and mineral ores that are not replaced on a meaningful time scale and are forever depleted until they have been practically exhausted. This means that there comes a time when a resource, such as hydrocarbon fuel, is no longer economical to exploit, which occurs long before complete exhaustion. Much of this book is about what happens in different regions when these stocks are depleted and we are forced to depend, once again, on poorer-quality resource stocks as well as daily flows of energy from the sun. Environmentalists and the news media, most of who live and work in urban areas, often speak longingly about a future based on renewable energy. Watch out what you ask for.