Friday, July 13, 2012

The Fight of the Century

Richard Heinberg writes for the Energy Bulletin:

For the sake of any national policy maker who may be reading this essay, here are a few take-home bullet points that summarize most of the advice that can be gleaned from our scenario exercise:
  • Guarantee the basics of existence to the general public for as long as possible.
  • At the same time, promote local production of essential goods, strengthen local social interconnectivity, and shore up local economies.
  • Promote environmental protection and resource conservation, reducing reliance of fossil fuels in every way possible.
  • Stabilize population levels.
  • Foster sound governance (especially in terms of participation and transparency).
  • Provide universal education in practical skills (gardening, cooking, bicycle repair, sewing, etc.) as well as in basic academic subjects (reading, math, science, critical thinking, and history). And finally,
  • Don’t be evil—that is, don’t succumb to the temptation to deploy military tactics against your own people as you feel your grip on power slipping; the process of decentralization is inexorable, so plan to facilitate it.
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