Hi Rob -
Your post outlines a number of incremental steps that can be taken to mitigate energy cost problems.
However, in the long run we'll need to change the way we live. Here I'm speaking to the way our communities are physically organized, and patterns of behaviour (addressed in your post), among other things.
Sixty years ago, our fathers enjoyed their new-found mobility (founded on easy access to cheap energy) in events such as "the Sunday drive".
In future, such activities will be limited to the few who can afford such indulgence.
In our lifetime, we've witnessed an explosion of historically unprecedented abundance. Many still don't understand that this was a short "blip" in time, and view many aspects of their existence, including the availability of personal transport as an entitlement. However we can now foresee reversion to previous norms.
Technology will provide some answers, but the underlying fundamental is the cost of energy, which will continue to rise. As it does, increasingly large portions of society will be marginalized: forced to adapt, as the cost of energy consumes increasing portions of their income for heat, light, transportation, food, water, infrastructure, education, raw materials: indeed, for every aspect of their existence.
Transition to a new equilibrium will take a century of wrenching change. It won't be easy.
Jim |
