Abstract
In the book Nature’s Economy, the intellectual historian and writer Donald Worster describes how humans’ view of nature has been bookended by two different intellectual traditions through the centuries: Arcadianism and imperialism. The idea of Arcadia is inspired by humans’ desire to live in harmony with nature, while imperialism represents the equally human urge to dominate it. Most of us are torn between the two, dreaming about and striving for harmony with nature, yet in our actions we are utter imperialists.
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Notes
- 1.
. Donald Worster, Nature’s Economy—A History of Ecological Ideas, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1994).
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. Shell, New Lens Scenarios (Shell, 2013).
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. Shell, A Better Life with a Healthy Planet (Shell, 2016).
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. David MacKay, Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air (Cambridge, England: UIT, 2009).
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. Vaclav Smil, Energy in Nature and Society: General Energetics of Complex Systems (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007); Jose Bravo and Gert Jan Kramer, “The Energy Density Conundrum,” in The Colours of Energy: Essays on the Future of Energy in Society, edited by Gert Jan Kramer and Bram Vermeer (Shell, 2015).
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. European Climate Foundation, “Roadmap 2050: A Practical Guide to a Prosperous, Low-Carbon Europe” (ECF, 2010).
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. McDonald et al., “Energy Sprawl” (see chap. 1, n. 4).
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. World Wildlife Fund, “The Energy Report—100% Renewable Energy by 2050” (WWF, 2011).
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. Shell, New Lens Scenarios.
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. Shell, New Lenses on Future Cities—A New Lens Scenario Supplement (Shell, 2014).
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. Shell. A Better Life with a Healthy Planet (Shell, 2016).
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. Yvonne Deng, Michèle Koper, Martin Haigh, and Veronika Dornburg, “Country-Level Assessment of Long-Term Global Bioenergy Potential,” Biomass and Bioenergy 74 (2015): 253–67, doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2014.12.003.
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. Thomas Faunce, Stenbjorn Styring, Michael Wasielewski, Gary Brudvig, Bill Rutherford, Johannes Messinger, Adam Lee, Craig Hill, Huub deGroot, Marc Fontecave, D. MacFarlane, Ben Hankamer, Daniel Nocera, David Thiede, Holger Dau, Warwick Hillier, Lianzhou Wang, and Rose Amal, “Artificial Photosynthesis as a Frontier Technology for Energy Sustainability,” Energy and Environmental Science 6 (2013): 1074–76, doi:10.1039/C3EE40534F.
Acknowledgments
I conceived this paper while working for Shell and am indebted to my Shell colleagues, notably from the Scenarios team and the Future Energy Technologies team, for illuminating discussions. At the time of writing I moved to Utrecht University, where I hold the chair of Sustainable Energy Supply Systems at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development.
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Kramer, G.J. (2017). Challenges of a Green Future. In: Kiesecker, J.M., Naugle, D.E. (eds) Energy Sprawl Solutions. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-723-0_2
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