Many thousands of L.A. County residents found themselves
without electrical power this week, stemming from downed power lines, due to high winds. If you live in Los Angeles County and you
were without light earlier this week, but you can now read this, then “Congratulations!” You are now suddenly thrust back into the
modern era, with freely flowing electricity, and all that goes with that!
This provides me with a possible teachable moment, to
continue my discussion on selected aspects of what I’ll call “energy and infrastructure.” Here are a few bullet points to consider:
·
If you (and the rest of the affected regions in
L.A. Co.) had had newer, underground, high-performance power cables, this type
of power outage likely would not have happened to you; moreover . . .
·
The need for such an infrastructure upgrade typically becomes painfully apparent to most of us only after disaster strikes;
·
Imagine the productivity
losses (i.e., opportunity costs, missed business, absences, etc.) that
this event has already created;
·
There are a number of different places on the
planet (that I myself have lived in), wherein power outages of this duration (a
couple of days within a week, sometimes longer) are not at all uncommon, and,
this is often reflected in business planning, management, and culture in the
Third World;
·
The combined, synergistic effects of climate change taking place in
the natural environment, together with the current level of human neglect toward the built environment (some of our urban
infrastructure is now many years overdue for either routine maintenance or a major upgrade),
all but ensures that events akin to what happened this week have been “a preview of coming detractions” (with my usual caveat, “If present trends continue.”);
·
In light
of the point above (no pun intended), consider the roles of (Re-)insurance companies. They know what’s going on now, and have ever
so quietly recalibrated their
actuarial tables accordingly, over the past decade or so. The potential frequency and size of future payouts
to policy-holders threatens a collapse of the entire insurance industry; hence the combination
of rate hikes, and the actual de-insuring of large tracts of land in this
country [check out the case of Coney Isalnd, Brooklyn, and storm insurance]. I’ve also written several times
in the recent past that the US
Department of Defense is likewise quietly preparing itself for the even newer New World Order (driven both by
changes in energy availability and the climate). The truth is out there; and we can find it
from a myriad of different sources now— private, public, and civil
society/non-profit organizations;
·
The fact that so much of the energy-ecology-economics discourse has been so dominated by “the
petroleum-financial complex” (and all the subsidiary corporations and
politicos who love them) means to me that we have been bearing witness to a slow
tragedy (and a big racket) in the making, over the past few decades—it didn’t necessarily have to be this way. But . . .
·
It’s
not too late! There are still
many things we can do (individually and collectively—How about cooperatives for training and bulk purchasing/installing/maintaining
of solar arrays?), such that we don’t end up cannibalizing our high-tech 20th
century infrastructure for parts, in order to build low-tech 21st
century shacks for housing (recall dystopic novels like Parable of the Sower, by Octavia Butler; or World Made by Hand, by James
Howard Kunstler; and who could forget the Mel Gibson cult classic film, Mad Max?). By all means, my friends, let us avoid this type of “future-primitive scenario.”
A lot of people (who are currently without sufficient work) could
be employed in this country to help make these changes (recall, or Google, the old WPA program from the 1930s). But, we now live in
interesting times, wherein we have a large swath of the US Congress (and "interest groups" elsewhere in American society) seemingly committed to maintaining a latter 20th century
lifestyle (based on mid-20th century paradigms), but without wanting
to pay the necessary price to sustain it.
Additionally, it seems our leaders seek to do this under the rapidly
advancing environmental conditions and changing global economic circumstances of
the early 21st century. This
is a negative case of leadership by
example, and ultimately a recipe for disaster. This has certainly been borne out by my own reading
of history. A study of the latter decades of the Western
Roman Empire (contrasted with the subsequent flourishing of the Eastern Roman
Empire) makes a wonderful historical case study, in that regard. This has to do with adherence to traditions
versus willingness to adapt, under changing global circumstances. Question: How much do we resemble the Romans?
Consider the following quote, from the US Army War College, on what I’ll call organizational epistemology, or organizational views of the world. The topic is “war” (of what I sometimes call “extreme public policy”), but the general thrust of this idea has broad applicability, I think.
Consider the following quote, from the US Army War College, on what I’ll call organizational epistemology, or organizational views of the world. The topic is “war” (of what I sometimes call “extreme public policy”), but the general thrust of this idea has broad applicability, I think.
History
would suggest that military organizations have been more committed to the ethos
of the past than to preparing to meet the future. There is a good reason for
this: The effectiveness of military institutions in the Western tradition has
depended on their ability to inculcate discipline . . . . Yet the demand of discipline and rigid
respect for one’s superiors—on which cohesion in battle depends—are
antithetical to the processes of adaptation, which require a willingness on the
part of subordinates to question the revealed wisdom of their superiors. It is
this inherent tension between the creation of disciplined, obedient military
organizations, responsive to direction from above, and the creation of
organizations adaptive to a world of constant change that makes military
innovation in peacetime and adaptation in war so difficult.
Allow me to use the above quote as a kind of metaphor for
our current national situation. I think we have
reached a moment in our history wherein it is imperative that the “commanding
officers” in our society begin to hear a bit more from the “foot
soldiers.” [The "Occupy" movement seems to be the first baby steps in that direction, in some ways.] They need to grasp the implications of what is actually
happening, on the ground, in the theater of operations. But, in
order for that to happen, they will have to first put down their strong drinks
(abandon the intoxicating effects of outmoded ideology), then step away from
the plush comforts of the Officers’ Club (be willing to let go of some luxuries
for the sake a larger cause: our long-term survial), and walk across the base to get over to the
“communications” building (do the work necessary to see and hear—to grasp—what's actually taking
place).
Reports have been streaming in—apparently for some time
now—indicating that a very large force is now massing against us; and, it
appears to be unlike anything we’ve ever encountered on this scale before. If
you step outside and look closely on the horizon, you can see even see
something, faintly, in the distance. [And,
sadly for some perhaps, it looks like the elaborate party over at the Officers'
Club, on the other side of the base, will now have to be cancelled.] It’s
almost midnight. Those who are asleep will
now have to wake up.
On the issue of energy infrastructure, we shall have to
mobilize ourselves as if on a war footing, in order to upgrade its functionality for a new, more dynamic, and
more challenging era.
It’s time to sound the alarm. We need all hands on deck now. Battle
stations! This is not a drill.
I Repeat: this is not a drill . . .
Blaine
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