Richard Heinberg

Every discussion about energy should begin or end with a reminder that building a global industrial economy on the basis of ever-increasing rates of extracting and burning finite fossil fuel resources, with polluting byproducts, was and is utterly insane.

We're going to have to start coming to terms with nature's limits.

If our problems now were on the same scale as they were then, we would have a much better chance of solving them.

Whenever there's an energy crisis, it can quickly become an everything crisis.

It's difficult to convey the degree and depth of elites' failure without descending into lurid disaster porn.

As the people of Ukraine suffer—world leaders, transfixed by geopolitics—seem even further away from collective recognition of what will be required to avert societal collapse.

The essence of the plan is simplicity itself: just directly reduce fossil fuel production and consumption.

It's certainly too little, and it’s too late to avert significant impacts to nature and humanity. But it’s not too late to wise up to natural limits and start planning for low-energy life after fossil fuels. If we adopt a cynical attitude and do nothing, we guarantee the worst possible outcome for future generations.