climate change is especially intersecting with a global energy crisis (see Homer-Dixon, 2006, on the complex interconnections).
Today’s global economy is deeply dependent upon, and embedded into, abundant cheap oil. Most industrial, agricultural, commercial, domestic and consumer systems are built around the plentiful supply of ‘black gold’ (and gas, see Darley, 2004). As Homer-Dixon notes: ‘oil powers virtually all movement of people, materials, foodstuffs, and manufactured goods – inside our countries and around the world’ (2006: 81). It is remarkably versatile, convenient and, during the 20th century, was relatively cheap.”(((((((((((ITCONTINUES))))))))))) “This infrastructure was a 20th-century phenomenon, with the US as the disproportionately high-energy producing and consuming society.
Its economy and society were based upon the combination of automobility and electricity. While the US possesses 5 percent of the world’s population, it consumes a quarter of the world’s energy and produces almost a quarter of global carbon emissions (Nye, 1999: 6). And it is predicted that, with business-as-usual, global energy consumption would increase 2.46 times between 2000 and 2050 (Homer-Dixon, 2006: 328)”.
