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limitations of liberty and the American dream without thereby trashing the world’s
ecosystems in search of a few more barrels of oil or further eroding our democratic and
social institutions. It is literally the remaking of the American system.
It is admittedly presumptuous of me to offer the problem statement and suggestions
for how we might collectively solve the problem, but I sincerely believe that we have a
ten to thirty year window to effect the changes necessary to address successfully the end
of oil. (And ten to thirty years is not much time to redirect any system’s deep and
underlying assumptions). We can, and should, argue about my specific
recommendations. What matters is not the specific shape of the problem statement or the
programs developed to address the problem statement. What matters is that academics
across the disciplines agree to focus on a few of these problem statements, and then to get
to work on some solutions.
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I will start by suggesting what we should not do. I will
then continue with a process model borrowed from an engineering colleague of mine, and
provide some suggestions for how we might put some civic solutions to the oil endgame
into place right where we work, as teachers, scholars, and citizens.
1)
Abandon Environmentalism
First things first. It is not the most prudent move on my part to suggest the abandonment
of environmentalism to a panel and session devoted to civic environmentalism. But I do
think it is the right first step, and for three reasons. The first is that environmental hand
wringing has never been very effective, especially when done by academic-centered,
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Despite the description of academics as independent and hard-to-corral, I do not believe it is unreasonable
to think that we might organize around issues or projects. I’m thinking, for example, of the Physicians for
Social Responsibility (
http://www.psr.org/home.cfm?id=about
) or The Union of Concerned Scientists
(
http://www.ucsusa.org/ucs/about/index.cfm
)
Convention