The resource descent that we are facing includes such challenges as declining net energy, the peaking of crude oil production rates and the draw-down of fossil aquifers. These are not problems, at least not in the normal definition of that word. They are predicaments that will play out over this century.
The difference is that a problem calls for a solution; the only question is whether one can be found and made to work, and once this is done, the problem is solved. A predicament, by contrast, has no solution. Faced with a predicament, people come up with responses. Those responses may succeed, they may fail, or they may fall somewhere in between, but none of them "solves" the predicament, in the sense that none of them makes it go away. -John Michael Greer
How we respond to resource descent is one of the defining questions of our time. While there is no solution to
emerging biophysical realities, there are consequences to be faced, plans to be made and transitions to be implemented. Likewise, it is prudent for psychological research to help people form, not solutions but durable responses. The difference between a solution and a response is subtle. But it centers on pursuing and being content with a good yet simple life, on this finite planet. We should start while we still have options, and while we still have surpluses of energy and social capital.
Raymond De Young About
