The following is a response to The Renewable Energy Transition Is Failing, by Richard Heinberg. My own view is that when we say "the energy transition" we ought to mean by the phrase, mainly, the phasing out of our very high-intensity energy (and materials) material and economic culture, replacing it with an economy rooted in sufficiency rather than luxury. We can also mean by the phrase the adoption of
The quote you include as part of your post here really does say it all. The idea of an “energy transition“ is actually wryly amusing. As Americans, we are weaned, and encouraged to think that the only answer is “more“ of everything. People are not about to curb their appetites for material goods or comfort in any way. “I’m an American, I want the world, and I want it now” seems to be the byword.
In a summary of a survey I saw in the last several months, most people are not willing to contribute more than a dollar a month to an imaginary utility bill in order to “save the planet.“ We Americans are too busy demonizing immigrants, LGBTQ people and those on the margins, whose future equality might somehow damage our own bloated sense of white male privilege and entitlement.
The “Overton window“ (itself, a libertarian construct) has been stretched, opened, and bulldozed so far to the right (by libertarians and other associated neo-Fascists, billionaire fan boys and corporate sucks), as to be virtually useless as a metaphor for the range of acceptable political discourse,. What the right so readily calls “the left“ used to be the center right in this country. I know, because I’m old, and I remember. (For a bit of amusement, look at the Republican party platform that Eisenhower ran on in 1956.) Nowadays, a “socialist“ is anyone whose politics are to the left of hunting the homeless for sport.
The quote you include as part of your post here really does say it all. The idea of an “energy transition“ is actually wryly amusing. As Americans, we are weaned, and encouraged to think that the only answer is “more“ of everything. People are not about to curb their appetites for material goods or comfort in any way. “I’m an American, I want the world, and I want it now” seems to be the byword.
In a summary of a survey I saw in the last several months, most people are not willing to contribute more than a dollar a month to an imaginary utility bill in order to “save the planet.“ We Americans are too busy demonizing immigrants, LGBTQ people and those on the margins, whose future equality might somehow damage our own bloated sense of white male privilege and entitlement.
The “Overton window“ (itself, a libertarian construct) has been stretched, opened, and bulldozed so far to the right (by libertarians and other associated neo-Fascists, billionaire fan boys and corporate sucks), as to be virtually useless as a metaphor for the range of acceptable political discourse,. What the right so readily calls “the left“ used to be the center right in this country. I know, because I’m old, and I remember. (For a bit of amusement, look at the Republican party platform that Eisenhower ran on in 1956.) Nowadays, a “socialist“ is anyone whose politics are to the left of hunting the homeless for sport.