October 5, 2012
The End of the Age of Oil
Coal, because strikes could cut off its supply, made modern social democracy possible. Oil, because its supply has been pretty much guaranteed, compromised democratic gains. Now that we're running out of cheap carbon fuel what happens next? Dr. Timothy Mitchell, author of Carbon Democracy
Comments
Good one, George. Thanks.
Here is a sort of coda:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175601/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_extreme_energy_means_an_extreme_planet/
On a different note, I don't know if you ever saw this:
The Very Important and of Course Blacklisted BIS Paper About the Crisis
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/09/the-very-important-and-of-course-blacklisted-bis-paper-about-the-crisis.html
[Thanks, John! Will read the essay — hadn't seen it. g.]
Posted by: John | October 5, 2012 5:02 PM
Excellent show. Hadn't known Persia was picked for its docility. Ironic, n'est ce pas?
Posted by: Indian Jones | October 11, 2012 10:17 AM
Getting caught up on the podcast. Very good show - great that academics are beginning to include energy in their analysis.
My only comment on content is that it was the cheap (relatively) energy itself - the ability to create "energy slaves" for the common man - that ratcheted up comfort of life (and consequently "liberalized" political systems); we're now on the downhill slope of that and we'll see what happens. The coal/oil distinction in interesting as a secondary driver but it's not primary. (See your previous guest Thomas Homer-Dixon.)
Posted by: Kevin | November 8, 2012 1:37 PM