High Fuel Prices — Bad for Us, Good for Nature?

Well then, skip the trip, cut out vodka, shrink the economy, and save the planet

Less petrol and less vodka (photo by Alec Favale on Unsplash).

PEOPLE HATE IT when oil and gas prices surge, as is happening again because of the war in Europe and other factors. Our U.S. government is begging for Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil to replace what we’d otherwise get from our enemy Russia. Even the electric car guy, Elon Musk, favors increasing oil and gas production. “Extraordinary times demand extraordinary measures,” he tweeted.

No doubt rising oil and gas prices will hurt the economy and our pocket books. Prices of just about everything will rise. Political leaders desperately want to soften the blow and get more fossil fuels to market. To lessen our anxiety, President Biden assures us that "we're approaching record levels of oil and gas production in the United States and we’re on track to set a record of oil production next."

But what about climate change? The coronavirus pandemic and presumably this war, however ghastly, achieve something we’ve been voluntarily unable to do — drop greenhouse gas emissions quickly and significantly.

However, with the accelerating climate crisis, we simply can’t wait decades for renewable energy to save us, if it ever does. The only sure way to deeply cut greenhouse gas emissions is to rein in economic growth. That would also reduce exploitation of natural resources, levels of pollution, and perhaps even human population growth. A huge bonus would be much less damage to the world’s biodiversity and a lessening of the extinction crisis.

Let’s pause, take a deep breath, and cut consumption as a matter of choice rather than necessity. We can’t expect to protect nature (and ultimately ourselves) without drawing down economically and addressing class inequity (poor people destroy local environments to survive). For affluent people, this means cutting consumption and living modestly. For the less affluent, it means help with basic needs. Considering the vast sums of money spent for warfare, it’s surely possible to finance a smooth and just transition to a simpler, nobler, and sufficient way of life. I’d say it is just a matter of choice.

Brigham McCown, former head of Alaska’s Alyeska Pipeline, warns, “If energy prices continue to skyrocket, we will see significant inflationary pressure that will in turn lead to potential demand destruction…yeah, our economy is going to take a significant hit.” Well then, how about hitting a home run for nature?