Running Low

Back in early 2009, when the financial crisis was at its height, I wrote a song called Contranature.  It was an attempt to get people to think more deeply about the implications of what we were doing, as a society, to chase our ideal of perpetual economic growth.

The financial crisis came at the right time from one point of view, it delayed the spectre of "peak oil" for a few years, gave the world a little time, a little breathing space in order to try and do something to bridge the gap that was sure to come between demand and supply in that most necessary of resources, energy.  It seems to me that, despite the almost perpetual backdrop of scientists and environmentalists airing their fears about global warming and resource depletion, the average man in the street thinks "there is nothing I can do about this" and continues as before.  He's wrong of course, if everyone reacted in some way, turned down the thermostat, travelled less, then it would have a big effect, but people don't see it like that.

There are 7 billion people on this earth. Soon, there will be 10 billion. Until about 1600, the earth's population was pretty much under control because of disease, famine, wars. Technology put that right. Right now, the world economy is having a bad day. Everyone tells us we need growth, more of everything. That will get us out of the pit the world is in right now. Truth is, it all has to come from somewhere and there isn't that much of anything left. We have enough oil for maybe 40 years. What are you going to do then? Oh, and of course there's greenhouse gases. Global warming. Climate change.

I keep hearing the words "save the planet" like it's a mantra or something. I don't know why we worry so much about the planet, it's been here 4.5 billion years and it will still be here a very long time after we're all gone. It's shrugged off enough calamities in the past, asteroids, meteorites and the like - a couple of million years and everything will be right as rain again. For those of us who like playing with numbers, like me, put that into relative terms, on a scale of 1 to 100 million. Imagine a 45 year-old man or woman.  Two million years to the earth is equivalent to the same amount of time that it takes a 45 year-old to recover from a cold, (i.e. a week)so what's all the fuss about? It only really hit me while I was writing this song that when people say "save the planet" what they really mean is "save us". The planet will be fine, but we won't.

Actually, I am one of life's major optimists, and I don't really believe in catastrophe. And I'm not turning into an eco-warrior, either. I'm just thinking here. When you put timeframes into the perspective of the age of the earth relative to that 45 year-old, it looks like this: Two years ago, there were dinosaurs walking the earth.  Man's early forbears (Homo Erectus) appeared this time last week and men (as we know them) appeared for the first time late yesterday afternoon. The fossil fuels that we started to extract a couple of minutes ago and have now nearly exhausted had been there about two years.  The human population started to grow uncontrollably two minutes ago - about as long as it might take you to notice a fly buzzing round the room, find the newspaper and despatch it...

That's how fragile we all are.

And that's what my song "Contranature" is about.

http://www.mixposure.com/chris-moore/audio/6008/contranature

Where will you go to my pretty one 
When the oceans come back to reclaim all they’ve lost 
Will you be lucky my little one 
To live out your days as you pick up the cost 
Of our faith of the truth 
Of a destiny fitting of man and a legacy fitting of no man 
No child no land 

We fill up the earth in our image 
We reach for the sky and what lays beyond 
We may not be there at the finish 
But know that we people were weak and our leaders were strong 
And they knew they knew we were making 
A destiny fitting of man and a legacy fitting of no man 
No child no land 

And I was listening to the news where city men will air their views 
And progress is the word they take in place of greed or big mistake 
The growth we seek will soon return we’ve a hundred years of oil to burn 
And all those things consumers need six billion hungry mouths to feed 
We must succeed yeah we must succeed 

Everything we take for granted everything we work for 
Every seed of life we’ve planted’s going to make it hurt more 
Time will come before too long ‘cause we’re playing contranature 
Time will come for everyone playing contranature  

Of course, since that time, we seem to have discovered shale gas, fracking, and one or two other ways to make energy ends meet.  We've also had the Fukushima nuclear disaster, which has changed some people's, and indeed some countries', thoughts about the future of that particular source.  Many people seem though to have some blind faith in technology to see us through - and let's face it, that has been the case with pretty much everything over many peoples' lifetimes, just wait a while and science will sort it for us.

I hope that's the case this time, but I have a feeling that may be just a little optimistic.

Many years ago, before fossil fuels became our helpers, there was another abundant source of energy which was tapped by developing societies.  It was called slavery.  Humanity only really dealt with the horrors of slavery once there was something to replace it.  What will happen when that something runs out still remains to be seen.