What's on This Site

Purpose: to function as a clearinghouse of useful information, as well as an incubator of provocative and innovative ideas. I have done this by trying to break down some of the complexities associated with the overlapping issues of energy, culture, politics, and economics. I cover a range of political, social, and scientific perspectives here. Although global in focus, there is a slight regional slant toward the western American state of California. The physical layout of this site is basically divided into two vertical halves: the left-hand side, and the right-hand side.

Down the left side (mostly blog posts & links):
- My Blog Posts
- Rationale: Why I designed this site
- Related External Blog and RSS Links: over 50 sources of up-to-the-minute information on politics, economics, and the environment
- My Personal Links
- Selected Global Resource Statistics
- About Me
- The Peak Oil Clock


Down the right side (mostly multimedia & links):
- Revolving Globe
- Videos: Setting the Context on Overall Resource Usage
- Additional Videos/Podcasts: Linking Energy, Politics, and Economics
- Energy-Environment-Finance Links: nearly 100 information sources and tools covering a wide range of approaches and applications
- Yet More Videos: Transition Solutions and Proposed Next Steps


Across the Bottom (information section, mostly reference material on energy consumption):
- Suggested Additional Reading and Viewing
- World Energy Consumption Statistics (year-to-date, updated in near-real-time)
- US Energy Consumption Statistics (year-to-date, updated in near-real-time)
- World Oil Prices (European Brent & American WTI, updated daily)



Keyword Search Here:

Friday, December 2, 2011

If you live in Los Angeles County and had no light this week . . .


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.

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

No comments:

Why design a site on "Culture and the Political-Economy of Energy Resources?"

Overview: A New Way for a New Era

The overall purpose of this site is to function as a clearinghouse of useful information, as well as an incubator of provocative and innovative ideas. Emphasis will be on the social implications of our heavy reliance on petroleum and related products. All of this is being discussed—either implicitly or explicitly—in the overarching / overlapping context(s) of Peak Oil and Climate Change.

The site contains a collection of useful links, original articles, re-posts from other distinguished organizations, individual writers and bloggers.

I hope that you will find this site both useful and enjoyable (and I welcome your feedback). It’s not easy to make something so serious so fun. This comes about as a result of reviewing a lot of material in the past which, although very informative, could also be quite depressing and downright discouraging at times. So, I’ve decided to take a slightly different path, in bringing you information that you will possibly find important or helpful.

Finally, know that you are not alone in all of this—far from it. These are issues we are all facing, in one way or another. So let’s find our courage and face them together.


Aerial View of Downtown Los Angeles. This city typifies the triumph of the petroleum-based industrial system of the 20th century.

External Blog and RSS Links

Research Gate

Blaine Pope

"In the beginning is energy, all else flows therefrom." -- Cheikh Anta Diop (1974)

"In the beginning is energy, all else flows therefrom." -- Cheikh Anta Diop (1974)

About Me

My photo
A college professor and independent management consultant, focusing on general program design and administration, sustainable development, and the political-economy of energy and the environment. Faculty member at Goddard College (Plainfield, VT). Previously worked at the following academic institutions: Sociology and Anthropology Department, University of Redlands (Redlands, CA); Media and Social Change Program, jointly taught between the School of Psychology at Fielding Graduate University (Santa Barbara, CA) and the University of California at Los Angeles Extension (UCLAx) Program; Research Assistant Professor, Center for Sustainable Cities at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA); Global Studies Program, University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB); MPA Program in Environmental Science and Policy, The Earth Institute and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University (New York, NY); and, Swahili Language Program, Council on African Studies, Yale University (New Haven, CT). -- Additional working experience in emergency relief and development in 10 countries in Africa and the Middle East.

Energy Information Resource Section


Find out how to invest in energy stocks at EnergyAndCapital.com.
Powered By Blogger