Our new historical moment requires different thinking and different strategies, but it also offers new opportunities to solve some very practical problems. Ideas from environmentalists that for decades have been derided by economists and politicians—reducing consumption, relocalizing economic activity, building self-sufficiency—are suddenly being taken seriously in households that can no longer afford to keep up with the consumerist treadmill.
Quietly, a small but growing movement of engaged citizens, community groups, businesses, and elected officials has begun the transition to a post-carbon world. These early actors have worked to reduce consumption, produce local food and energy, invest in local economies, rebuild skills, and preserve local ecosystems. For some citizens, this effort has merely entailed planting a garden, riding a bike to work, or no longer buying from “big-box” stores. Their motivations are diverse, including halting climate change and promoting environmental preservation, food security, and local economic development. The essence of these efforts, however, is the same: They all recognize that the world is changing and that the old way of doing things, based on the idea that consumption can and should continue to grow indefinitely, no longer works.
Alone, these efforts are not nearly enough. But taken together, they can point the way toward a new economy. This new economy would not be a “free market” but a “real market,” much like the one fabled economist Adam Smith originally envisioned; it would be, as author David Korten has said, an economy driven by Main Street and not Wall Street.
Thus far, most of these efforts have been made voluntarily by exceptional individuals who were quick to understand the crisis we face. But with time, more and more people will be searching for ways to meet basic needs in the context of a shrinking economy. Families reliant on supermarkets with globe-spanning supply chains will need to turn more to local farmers and their own gardens. Many globe-spanning corporations—unable to provide a continuous return on investment or to rely on cheap energy and natural resources to turn a profit—will fail, whereas much smaller local businesses and cooperatives of all kinds will flourish. Local governments facing declining tax revenues will be desperate to find cheap, low-energy ways to support basic public services like water treatment, public transportation, and emergency services.
Elements of a transition strategy have been proposed for decades, with few notable results. Usually these have been presented as independent—sometimes even contradictory—solutions to the problems created by fossil-fuel dependency and consumerism. Now that “business as usual” is ceasing to be an option for mainstream society, these strategies need to be rethought and rearticulated coherently, and they need to become the mainstream.
What we need now are clarity, leadership, coordination, and collaboration. With shared purpose and a clear understanding of both the challenges and the solutions, we can manage the transition to a sustainable, equitable, post-carbon world, though the urgency of the need to fully and immediately engage with the transition process at all levels of society can hardly be overstated.