The creation an efficient, effective and fair U.S. climate policy is utterly important, and overdue. But, argues Dynamic Cities Project founder Bryn Davidson, unless we take Peak Oil into consideration, we may end up in a situation that pits energy security against climate change concerns.
Davidson told the 30 or so people squeezed into a board room at the Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment that only by coupling policy on Peak Oil and climate change, will we succeed in reaching a sustainable future. (Take a look at what Peak Oil looks like here.)
Although climate change is the larger threat, Davidson said, the magnitude of Peak Oil will soon outweigh climate change concerns, as fossil fuels are ingrained in almost our entire infrastructure.
“Peak Oil is an economic bulldozer that comes on and changes everything,” Davidson said. “A climate strategy that ignores Peak Oil would be like sticking our heads in the sand.”
Davidson’s presentation illustrated how combining the nexus of Peak Oil and Climate Change has severe local implications for food production and prices, immigration and refugees, liability of homes and cities, economy, inflation, jobs, and political stability and safety. Integrating Peak Oil and climate change into the practice of planning and design, Davidson said, will be necessary to making a successful global energy transition.
The strategy that emerges is one that “thinks outside the extrapolation” box and moves us toward a post-carbon future. In this scenario, we would “power-down” fossil-fuel dependent energy and transportation systems and “power-up” clean and resilient sources of energy.
Davidson said that integrating strategies into mainstream planning can be done by creating new clean and resilient sources of energy and relocalizing our economies. He encourages cities to start with acknowledging the Peak Oil and Climate nexus and then move quickly into a discussion about scenarios, targets and adaption plans.
Local governments in cities such as Portland, Ore., and San Francisco are conducting studies and implementing task forces to research the risks related to both Peak Oil and climate change.
Davidson pointed out that a multitude of solutions and cooperative global and grassroots efforts will be necessary to make the energy transition. From net-zero buildings to grid-tied solar power, wind-energy co-ops to district heating, this congress of solutions is made up of tools that, thankfully, are already here. Communities across the globe are finding new ways to start their own renewable energy facilities, build new modes of transportation and imagine new ways of decreasing their carbon footprint.
