New Year’s Eve is that moment in the year when many resolve
what they will do to ensure changes in their life.
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| Bread and circuses were the staple diet of ancient Romans. |
Such resolutions are usually about altering some personal behaviour,
exercising more, being friendlier, drinking less, giving up smoking, changing a
job or maybe, growing some vegetables at home.
All appealing ideals and worth pursing, but watching world events,
listening to learned and articulate people and reading widely, it’s obvious
that New Year’s resolutions will have to be less narcissistic, somewhat more
altruistic and broadly more concerned about the other.
Life, as it is presently understood and enjoyed will become increasingly
remote as this decade ends and another begins to unfold.
The bounty we presently enjoy every day, and especially at events such
as Christmas just passed, can be traced to the first agricultural revolution
about 10 000 years ago when humans made tentative steps from the life of hunter
gatherers to settled agriculture.
Abandoning the practice of always being on the move in search of new
hunting grounds, tribes put down roots, and geographically fixed communities
took shape with civilization being born.
The arrival of agriculture bought a surfeit of energy, albeit small, but
an excess sufficient to create an economy in which the resultant tokenism that
allowed it to operate became known as money.
That tokenism has in itself no value being little more than a claim on
past, present and future energy which was initially little more than human,
animal or that provided directly by nature through wind, water or the sun.
Those energy sources where, for millennia, ample, but then we discovered
and learned to exploit fossil fuels to build today’s modern world, but after
about 200 years that resource is nearly exhausted and a by-product has been a
damaged and disrupted climate system; a change the threatens humanity.
So, a worthwhile resolution would be to learn more about, and
appreciate, the growing scarcity of energy and subsequently decide what you are
going to do about your intergenerational responsibilities – how are you going
to ensure that your grandchildren are going to live a contented life on a
planet sucked dry of easily accessible energy?
The ancient Romans fed the populace bread and circuses in what was an
abuse of the social compact and the distractions of that era are evident again
with stories of moon landings, energy-rich entertainments, meaningless
political chatter, resource-based wars and border confrontations are distracting
us from the facts that energy is in short supply and our climate is seriously
damaged.
A New Year’s resolution?
Learn about the world’s parlous energy state and beyond joining and
supporting a local group encouraging resilience, learn about and respond with
enthusiasm and optimism to climate change.
