Oil is the prime mover behind the globalised industrial economy, and the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change mean that society will have to use less energy per head in future. The change can either be forced upon people, or with some foresight some of the way things are run can be changed so that the reduction in energy requirements transforms the way we live to a better future.
The Problem
Market forces have used cheap oil profligately, transporting goods around the globe. While this is fine in the case of some high-value goods that have to made in a specialised way, a lot of trade leverages the low cost of transport, a result of relatively cheap oil. Nowhere is this more apparent than in food, which is often transported worldwide where it can be grown in the consumer’s country. Here, using a little bit more skill in choosing what is eaten to go with the local seasons, vast amounts of energy can be saved by eating local. Globalisation has generally tended to involve more travel, for goods and for people. The economics of this will be adversely affected if the cost of oil increases.
At the same time, globalisation has led to more specialisation, complexity and automation. This makes supply chains longer and more susceptible to disruption. The resilience of society to interruptions in supply is reduced – for example in the UK fuel protests of 2000 only four days of partial blockading of fuel depots led to widespread fuel shortages across the country.
