Energy, Climate and Cuts: A Fork in the Road

Frack Off | 30.03.2012 22:45 | Climate Chaos | Ecology | Public sector cuts

We are living in a world where the effects of energy systems on society are becoming more crucial by the day and ignoring them will become more and more difficult. This statement while true is, in some ways, very misleading. It is not the case that energy has become more important to the functioning of society – it has always been one of the most important factors. However, the wave of extreme energy extraction methods that is sweeping across the planet, driven by rising energy prices and constrained supplies, is forcing similarly rapid changes in the world around us.

The effects that extreme energy will have on human society and it’s environment are already becoming evident, though few people seem to be paying much attention. People are just beginning to wake up to the fact that some individual extreme energy processes are themselves extremely harmful to the environment (e.g. Tar Sands and Fracking) but very little thought is being devoted to the effects of extreme energy as a whole or how it is likely to evolve in the future. In order to try to build some sort of understanding of this big picture it will necessary examine both the physical nature of extreme energy and the nature of our society.

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