Plan B and The New Age of Austerity

Plan A for the last 100 years has been to burn cheap fossil fuels as quickly as possible.

And we don’t have a Plan B.

When we reach peak oil (if it hasn’t already happened) and remaining oil and natural gas supplies become harder and costlier to obtain, most North Americans will be under-prepared for the consequences.


Every structure and product built and maintained by cheap oil will quickly reach the end of its shelf life.

From The Long Emergency:

“The future is now here for a living arrangement that had no future.

“We spent all our wealth acquired in the 20th century building an infrastructure of daily life that will not work very long into the 21st century.

“It’s worth repeating that suburbia is best understood as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world.” pg. 248

Compact cities - if such a thing exists in North America - will find it a challenge to survive without the constant inputs of cheap fuel, and far-flung suburbs will barely stand a hope and a prayer.

As of today, there is no Plan B as we face The New Age of Austerity.

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