Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
these potentialities lies in overcoming the discursive constraints that too often limit
'serious' policy analysis to narrowly technical and economistic discourses. Another
need is to better understand and counter the processes of commodifi cation that
obscure the full social and environmental impacts of conventional energy systems
and the power interests they serve. Climate change and the US engagement in Iraq
provide unwelcome, but nonetheless important, new opportunities to make visible
more of the trauma embedded in 'business as usual' energy scenarios.
Ultimately, the reality of energy transformation plays itself out on the ground
and in the air, as social and technological networks become manifest in energy
capital stock. 'Landscapes of power' are produced and reproduced at various scales
through confl ict over dams, wind turbines, coal and nuclear plants, and access to
oil, forests, and fi elds. Presently, the gigantism of conventional energy systems pro-
duces, on the supply side, unhealthy concentrations of social power and ecological
impacts, along with, on the demand side, profl igate, disconnected, commodifi ed
consumers. Because investments planned for coal, oil and nuclear are simultaneously
investments not made in wind, solar, or effi ciency, virtually all business-as-usual
forecasts suggest the age of massive, centralised energy systems and their problems
is far from over. There are, however, indications that emerging within the interstices
of conventional energy systems are possibilities for more highly distributed energy
networks, ones that are composed of far smaller, more numerous, and 'smarter'
technologies that could be aligned more closely with the ecological and social condi-
tions of particular places (Lovins and Rocky Mountain Institute, 2002). This vision
of the next energy revolution - one that emerges from a deep understanding of the
transformative power of energy systems and a commitment to local empowerment
- can surely arise only as part of a movement redirecting political and corporate
incentives towards sustainable communities, small and large. A tall order, but one
full of possibility for geographers.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks to Annie Fine, Matt Huber and the editors of this volume for their helpful
suggestions.
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