A Necessary Revolution Energy, Ecology, and Economy in a Post-Carbon North Country

1. A Necessary RevolutionEnergy, Ecology, and Economy in a Post-Carbon North Country Bill Vitek Clarkson University June 22, 2005

2. What’s a Philosopher To Do? • Provide Perspective • Ask Unpleasant Questions • Expand/Contract Boundaries • Encourage Awareness of the Larger Goals of all of our Good Work: • A Viable Economy and Social Justice • Healthy and Productive Ecosystems • Civic Engagement • Post-Carbon Energy Supplies

3. Ours is an Enthusiasm Fueled by Failure • A Failed Mental Model • Nature as Source and Sink • Human Mind/Knowledge as Sufficient • Human Concerns First and Foremost • Transgression of Limits: • Science • Agriculture • Economics

4. The Gist • The “Oikos” is teetering: • Species • Climate • Pollutants • Energy • Human Population • Clogged Sinks and Limited Sources • Social Unrest/Population Migrations

5. http://www.oilcrisis.com/midpoint.htm

6. http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/cru/info/warming/

7. http://www.susps.org/overview/numbers.html

8. Changing Our Minds/et • New Conceptual Models • New/Old Standards • Renew Respect for Boundaries • Do More With Less • Create Models that deal with the problems we have now

9. Setting Boundaries • Energy: Get the Carbon Out • Regional: Defining the North Country • Ethical: Do Less Harm • Consumption

10. Sustainability • The Three E’s • Environmental Protection • Economic Viability • Equity and Social Justice • Triple Bottom Line • Let Nature Set the Standards

11. Sustainability • Sustainability is a strategy for living well in a world that is alive, interconnected, and crowded; and that is constrained by ethics, ignorance,and thenet primary production of ecosystems.

12. Biofuel Boundaries for a Sustainable North Country • Regional • Ecosystem • Economic • Aesthetic • Scientific/Technological • Social Justice • Political

13. Central Challenges • These are no longer separate problems • Demand will be greater than supply • We are still entangled with the old model • Perspective is not our strongest trait • We are provisioning a transition to a post-carbon world that must balance its ecological books

14. Principles for Our Regional Experiment • Regions are Real • The Well is more important than the Pump: Respecting Ecosystem Boundaries • Precaution: Ignorance is our Strong Suit • Biofuels as Means, not Ends • Limit/Eliminate Social and Ecological Externalities: Pollution, Low Wages

15. Principles for Our Regional Experiment • Create and Abide by a Regional Authority • Experiment with Alternative Political Models • Set Quantitative Quality of Life Goals • Integrate Social/Ecological Considerations Now, Not Later • No Net Loss of Wild Lands • Biofuels are a Bridge not a Destination • Beyond the Rock is a Hard Place

16. The Challenge • The race for resources has already begun • Barricading has already begun • The reconceptualization of all the systems has already begun • What can this region become in the midst of, and beyond, the Post-Carbon transition?

17. A Necessary Revolution • A shared mental model • Life after carbon pools: puddle jumping • Liberty without consumption • Rebuilding citizenship/social capital • Studying the exits • Constraining technological solutions • Formulating and embracing a land ethic • Informing and tempering enthusiasm

18. The most meaningful work that we can do is to “Build receptivity into the still unlovely human mind”* Beginning with our own….. *Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac