Mueller Lake Park Outdoor Amphitheater
The Coming Energy Crisis: Not Political, Not Conspiracy Theory
RECEIVED Thu., Nov. 17, 2005
Dear Editor,
I profoundly applaud Michael Ventura for his excellent four-part series on Things to Come in his "Letters at 3am" column. He has boldly addressed what so few in the media have grokked – that we're running out of cheap oil. The implications to our economy, society, and our lives will be absolutely enormous. This is not a political issue or a conspiracy theory – it's an economic issue that affects everyone.
Is anyone else concerned that our leadership in the city of Austin may not be moving fast enough to even basically prepare our city for the coming crisis? What action plans does the city have to assure sufficient supplies of local clean water, local food production, local energy supplies, locally focused jobs, and local transportation systems to meet the needs of nearly a million people, or two, when the prohibitive costs of long-distance transportation and energy shortages become commonplace?
Do Austinites realize that most products in grocery stores now travel thousands of miles to reach us? Is Austin prepared to replace that supply system with something local? Is there enough fertile agricultural land in the vicinity to support the food needs of our population?
I ask both citizens and the city leadership get to work now on a dynamic and groundbreaking action plan that positions Austin as a positive example of how a midsized city will survive in the post-peak oil world. Perhaps a director of sustainable development position, such as Chicago and Oakland, Calif., have implemented, is in order?
Making such substantial changes to our city is going to take time – not two-to-five years – more like 10-to-20, and many tears. If we don't start now, with serious and significant progress, we'll be unprepared to meet the challenge.
I profoundly applaud Michael Ventura for his excellent four-part series on Things to Come in his "Letters at 3am" column. He has boldly addressed what so few in the media have grokked – that we're running out of cheap oil. The implications to our economy, society, and our lives will be absolutely enormous. This is not a political issue or a conspiracy theory – it's an economic issue that affects everyone.
Is anyone else concerned that our leadership in the city of Austin may not be moving fast enough to even basically prepare our city for the coming crisis? What action plans does the city have to assure sufficient supplies of local clean water, local food production, local energy supplies, locally focused jobs, and local transportation systems to meet the needs of nearly a million people, or two, when the prohibitive costs of long-distance transportation and energy shortages become commonplace?
Do Austinites realize that most products in grocery stores now travel thousands of miles to reach us? Is Austin prepared to replace that supply system with something local? Is there enough fertile agricultural land in the vicinity to support the food needs of our population?
I ask both citizens and the city leadership get to work now on a dynamic and groundbreaking action plan that positions Austin as a positive example of how a midsized city will survive in the post-peak oil world. Perhaps a director of sustainable development position, such as Chicago and Oakland, Calif., have implemented, is in order?
Making such substantial changes to our city is going to take time – not two-to-five years – more like 10-to-20, and many tears. If we don't start now, with serious and significant progress, we'll be unprepared to meet the challenge.
Peter Lunsford
