Steve Hallett Quotes

We don't know exactly when out fossil fuels will run out... but by the end of the century, our oil and natural gas supplies will be virtually non-existent, and limited coal supplies will be restricted to only a handful of countries. ...We are at the peak of a remarkable two-hundred-year glitch in the history of civilization and are about to embark on the descent. The coming changes will be earth-shattering.

New technologies will not liberate us. Even if they do materialize they will not reduce our consumption of resources. They will not reduce our demand for energy. They will not diminish our impacts on the climate. And they will not bring about a better world.

America does not have to rely on vast volumes of oil and natural gas to make food. ...It has to get smarter. Dedicated, hard-working, ethical, and ingenious farmers ...show us it can be done. ...Another very promising trend in many countries is the reemergence of urban agriculture, community gardens, and backyard gardens.

A society that supports a wealthy few at the expense of the larger population is unlikely to persist.

What farmers should aim for is... higher margins using fewer inputs on less land, and a system that is sustainable.

The tragedy of the commons, explained by Garrett Hardin... shows how nonfunctional communities can rapidly destroy their own resource base. ...how good, rational people can form destructive communities. ...Instead of protecting their long-term future by conserving resources, they protect their short-term gains by competing, deplete their resources to the point of collapse, and bring about the failure of the community. ...again and again ...

Decentralization will prevent shocks from spreading throughout the system, like firebreaks in the forest.

Cellular systems, ecosystems, and civilizations are, at base, thermodynamic systems. ...The system uses energy, eventually releasing it as useless heat. ...there is one vital difference between natural systems and human systems: natural systems receive a fixed energy input that never varies. If we could set a strict limit on energy use, we could build a human system that is just as stable as an ecosystem.

We should stop subsidizing the fossil-fuel industries and instead provide subsidies for local and community energy projects.

Human systems always bring about their own demise... Natural systems... do not destroy themselves.

We seem to have quite a few problems: global climate change, peak oil, overpopulation, collapsing fisheries, desertification, wealth inequality, species extinctions, freshwater shortages, hapless governments, deforestation, disease epidemics, and agricultural failures top the list. ...our civilizations have been in similar situations before ...a long list of civilizations from the Maya to the Romans all collapsed. The precedent is set...

I encourage people to look into the Transition Network.

Fixed energy limits have not limited the progress of nature.

To combat the problems we face, we need to swim against the tide, and not only the main tide of environmentally blind industrialists, but also the secondary current of efficiency-blind environmentalists.

It is too late to slow this runaway train down before it tumbles into the chasm.