{"id":61051,"date":"2021-12-22T07:57:43","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T12:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=61051"},"modified":"2021-12-22T07:57:43","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T12:57:43","slug":"the-dream-of-a-smooth-energy-transition-is-little-more-than-a-comforting-shared-illusion-pt-1-of-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=61051","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe dream of a smooth energy transition is little more than a comforting\u00a0shared illusion\u201d \u2013 Pt. 1 of\u00a02"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/18\/the-dream-of-a-smooth-energy-transition-is-little-more-than-a-comforting-shared-illusion-pt-1-of-2\/\">\u201cThe dream of a smooth energy transition is little more than a comforting\u00a0shared illusion\u201d \u2013 Pt. 1 of\u00a02<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Moreover, says Dr. William Rees, even if it were possible, it would not solve climate change and would exacerbate the real existential threat facing society, namely overshoot. \u2014<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_22552\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" data-shortcode=\"caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/william-rees.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-22552\" style=\"border: 0px none; height: auto; max-width: 100%; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/william-rees.jpg?w=100&amp;h=150\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 100px) 100vw, 100px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/william-rees.jpg?w=100&amp;h=150 100w, https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/william-rees.jpg?w=200&amp;h=300 200w\" alt=\"\" width=\"100\" height=\"150\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22552\" data-attachment-id=\"22552\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/18\/the-dream-of-a-smooth-energy-transition-is-little-more-than-a-comforting-shared-illusion-pt-1-of-2\/william-rees-8\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/william-rees.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"683,1024\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;1.9&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;SM-G920W8&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1461570656&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;4.3&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;50&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0083333333333333&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"William Rees\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;William Rees&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/william-rees.jpg?w=200\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/william-rees.jpg?w=547\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-22552\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">William Rees<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>\u201cClimate-change and other environmental organizations urge governments to act decisively\/rapidly to decarbonize the economy and halt further development of fossil fuel reserves.\u00a0 These demands arguably expose:<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<ul>\n<li><em>ignorance of the role of energy in the modern economy;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>ill-justified confidence in society\u2019s ability to transition to 100% green renewable energy;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>no appreciation of the ecological consequences of attempting to do so;<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>and little understanding of the social implications.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Without questioning the need to abandon fossil fuels,<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<ul>\n<li><em>I will argue that the dream of a smooth energy transition is little more than a comforting\u00a0shared illusion.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Moreover, even if it were possible, it would not solve climate change and would exacerbate the real existential threat facing society, namely overshoot.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>I then explore<\/em>\n<ul>\n<li><em>some of the consequences and implications of (the necessary) abandonment of fossil fuels in the absence of adequate substitutes, and<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>how\u00a0governments and\u00a0MTI\u00a0[Modern Techno-Industrial] society\u00a0should\u00a0be responding to these unspoken biophysical realities.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u2014 Dr. William Rees<\/strong>, CACOR ZOOM Webinar 2021<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/10-image.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-22553\" src=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/10-image.jpg?w=547&amp;h=447\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 547px) 100vw, 547px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/10-image.jpg?w=547&amp;h=447 547w, https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/10-image.jpg?w=150&amp;h=123 150w, https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/10-image.jpg?w=300&amp;h=245 300w, https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/10-image.jpg 714w\" alt=\"\" width=\"547\" height=\"447\" data-attachment-id=\"22553\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/18\/the-dream-of-a-smooth-energy-transition-is-little-more-than-a-comforting-shared-illusion-pt-1-of-2\/10-image\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/10-image.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"714,584\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Frank White&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1639666407&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"10 image\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/10-image.jpg?w=300\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/10-image.jpg?w=547\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Dr. William Rees<\/strong>\u00a0is a population ecologist, ecological economist, Professor Emeritus, and former Director of the University of British Columbia\u2019s School of Community and Regional Planning.\u00a0 His academic research focuses on the biophysical prerequisites for sustainability.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/canadiancor.com\/about-the-club\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>About CACOR<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2014 The Canadian Association for the Club of Rome (CACOR) was founded in 1970 as one of the first of now more than thirty national associations affiliated with the International Club of Rome.\u00a0 CACOR is autonomous, independent, and nonpartisan.\u00a0<strong>Its main objective is to further the sustainability of the global ecosystem including the survival of humanity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe dream of a smooth energy transition is little more than a comforting\u00a0shared illusion\u201d \u2013 Pt. 1 of\u00a02 Moreover, says Dr. William Rees, even if it were possible, it would not solve climate change and would exacerbate the real existential threat facing society, namely overshoot. \u2014 William Rees \u201cClimate-change and other environmental organizations urge governments [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[32328,32329,30675,5930,32330,769,17076],"class_list":["post-61051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-cacor","tag-canadian-association-for-the-club-of-rome","tag-citizen-action-monitor","tag-energy-transition","tag-shared-illusion","tag-sustainability","tag-william-rees"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61052,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61051\/revisions\/61052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}