The steep ride up the and down the energy curve is the most abnormal thing that has ever happened in human history. Most of human history is a no-growth situation. Our culture is built on growth and that phase of human history is almost over and we are not prepared for it. Our biggest problem is not the end of our resources. That will be gradual. Our biggest problem is a cultural problem. We don't know how to cope with it.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the unsustainable nature of societal growth and the cultural challenges we face as we approach a plateau in resource availability.
M. King Hubbert's quote highlights the historical context of human growth, emphasizing that our current cultural framework relies heavily on continuous growth, which is now reaching a limit. It warns that as we confront the decline in growth, our society is ill-equipped to adapt to this change, leading to a profound cultural crisis rather than a simple resource shortage.
In practice
In a discussion about sustainable development, you can use this quote to emphasize the cultural implications of resource limitations.
Even through you and I are in different boats, you in your boat and we our canoe, we share the same river of life. What befalls me befalls you. And downstream, downstream in this river of life, our children will pay for our selfishness, for our greed, and for our lack of vision.
I donβt think we can solve the outside problems until we solve the ones within.
There's a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig - an animal easily as intelligent as a dog - that becomes the Christmas ham.
Why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from Birth must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient.
Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.
The answer is never the answer. What's really interesting is the mystery. If you seek the mystery instead of the answer, you'll always be seeking. I've never seen anybody really find the answer, but they think they have. So they stop thinking. But the job is to seek mystery, evoke mystery, plant a garden in which strange plants grow and mysteries bloom. The need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.