When I read that, I wonder, what well-hidden secret are they seeing that I am not? As all decent textbooks explain that economy = energy.* Then connect the dots, from various posts like https://medium.com/@thehonestsorcerer and https://dothemath.ucsd.edu/ and it becomes clear that the EROI of energy is rapidly decreasing. So unless some miracle like fusion suddenly saves the day, which doesn't look like it, then the automatic result will be the change in the rationale underpinning everything we do.
Understanding what that abstract notion means on the ground, on every individual's plate, is the narrative the ecological footprint analysis lobby is badly lacking. It's too damn abstract.
Make the local land-carrying capacity tangible for normal people: let them feel/experience what this really means for their life in their specific towns or cities.
Local communities should hold exercise drills, to identify the vulnerabilities in their systems. How long can we survive a bad diesel shortage? Can we still feed ourselves? Why is my drinking water gone? Do my hospitals have to close because they have no heating and too little electricity, etc? What if the shortage becomes permanent?
Cuba went through such a reality in the 90s, but they are relatively lucky with, a warm climate, 3 -4 crop cycles per year on rich soil, surrounded by a sea with plenty of fish and a collective system that more or less prevented mass panic. It was extremely tough on them. But many of our towns, cities and regions are far less blessed.
Drills make it personal, make it physical (phenomenological programming). We tend to forget that most people are primarily sentients.
Understanding what we have to do to survive collectively is I believe a key to using the time we still have to prepare wisely and make other choices. Natural systems that surround us invest 3-5x more in resilience than they do in efficiency.** If hadn't they wouldn't still be around. .That's a harsh amoral reality that also applies to us. Most cities in the West can only survive for 3 days at most, and only if we exclude the panic....
Can Your City Survive Challenge. Do the test:). Much better than millions of books and papers in journals:). You only need one town to start with....and then sit back and watch what happens next ::))
*Charles Hall Kent Klitgaard's Energy and the Wealth of Nations: Understanding the Biophysical Economy
** Bernard Lietaer min. 21.04 >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiY3s2OglV4
