Powerdown v. Lifeboat :: which to pursue?

Richard Heinberg is a smart person with a tough message to deliver. In his writings he lays out several options for us as a human race. The two most interesting (to me) are “powerdown” and “lifeboats”.  My crude summary defines “powerdown” as making enormous national/international efforts to get ourselves off oil, and “lifeboats” as a making significant local/regional efforts to prepare our communities for the coming system shocks.

Heinberg uses his professional time to focus on the powerdown strategy. This is wise; we must have brains like his doing so. But when asked which strategy he would pursue personally? He replies both, actually.

While much of this blog documents successes and failures in our family’s lifeboat experiments, much of my professional life revolves around the powerdown strategy. But frankly, my professional projects tend to make me depressed, as I see us gaining so little traction at the macro level. Then I read a new book.

It is potentially the most hopeful book related to the powerdown strategy, by Ralph Nader, I’ve read to date. Now for those readers who just rolled their eyes, give Nader another chance. His fictional book “Only the Super-Rich can save us” is a brilliant piece of fiction that just might come true, given the high quality nature of some of the world players he writes about (Warren Buffet, Bill Gates Sr, George Soros).

Highly recommended if you need a mood-lifter after reading too much negative news about our globe.