Anderson and Bows: Planned Economic Recession?
September 05, 2010 06:38AM
According to ecologist William Rees, the 2008 paper on "Reframing the climate change challenge" by Kevin Anderson and Alice Bows of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research was, "One of the very first papers in the climate science literature that actually made a political statement."
Rees' reference comes in the first segment of a challenging talk entitled, "Is Humanity Inherently Unsustainable?" delivered April 2010 in Vancouver.
Here is the statement by Anderson and Bows:
Unless economic growth can be reconciled with unprecedented rates of decarbonization (in excess of 6% per year), it is difficult to envisage anything other than a planned economic recession being compatible with stabilization at or below 650 ppmv CO2e.
Peak oil may cause an unplanned economic recession
Oil production has been on a plateau the past several years—since 2005—but it's not clear yet whether this is an all-time peak, or whether it's just a slow-down for some reason.
But if it is the real peak, then I think we may be headed for a major, unplanned recession. If we have to go through a transition to a shrinking economy, without having prepared beforehand for the possibility, I think we're headed for real turmoil and trouble.
For more, see loads of stuff on Google:
http://www.google.com/search?q=peak+oil+collapse