Central Ohio Relocalization Effort (CORE), Columbus, Ohio

A talk given at the Columbus Community Festival, June 23, 2006

Seppo A. Korpela, Central Ohio Relocalization Effort, CORE

I. Introduction and Oil Depletion

I represent a group called Central Ohio Relocalization Effort, or CORE for short. It is a chapter of an organization which understands that because we in the United States passed the peak of our oil production in 1970 and our natural gas production in 1973, and thus are forced to import today over 60% of our oil and 16 % of our natural gas, we cannot continue to live a life of high energy consumption. Although we have been able to import sufficient quantities of oil so far, this possibility is coming to an end owing to global oil production turning down soon, perhaps already this year, but most likely before the end of this decade.

Americans live in suburbs and are utterly dependent on their cars. The car and light truck population now numbers 220 vehicles and they consume 67% of the oil which we extract from our aging fields, or import from Middle East and elsewhere. That the world oil production will soon begin its terminal decline is beginning to show up in the high gasoline prices. And when the supply can no longer keep up with demand, prices will rise even higher and we will be in a scramble to get by. Of course, demand will have to come down in order to meet the diminished supply and the decisions we need to make today must recognize the fix we are in.

Since oil depletion is basically a transportation issue, the question we must ask is, what are the best policies that we can put into action today to get ourselves out of this corner into which we have painted ourselves? Our half serious thinking will take us to strengthening of the CAFE standards and this way extend the time for motoring. Then we will buy hybrid cars with the hope that we can still keep our suburban life in the form to which we have become accustomed. Next we will start converting biomass to motor fuels, as we are already doing, to keep our precious cars filled up, and this way tie irreversibly the food costs to cost of fuel; a bad idea, just keep our tanks filled up.

II. Ecological Crisis and Economic Growth

The subtext of all this reasoning is that we will try our best to hang on to our dysfunctional suburbs as long as we can, rather than take the necessary steps today to avert a larger crisis that is looming in the near future. As the energy, mineral, and biological resources of the world diminish, we will have squandered the true capital which makes the transition to more sane form of living possible and we may face a crisis of the kind already apparent in the third world countries today. I spent about five months last fall in India and I have seen first hand, and from discussions there, that it seems to be impossible for India to pull itself by its bootstraps to a sustainable form of life.

The same is true in many other parts of the world. Lester Brown of the Earth Policy Institute was on Ohio State campus this winter and from his lecture, which was based on his book Plan B 2.0, we learned of the impossible ecological crises that have thrown people in various parts of the world into desperation. Local fisherman of Senegal can no longer get their sustenance from the sea, as huge fishing vessels from Japan and elsewhere empty that part of the ocean of fish.

All of us, who have read about the ecological destruction taking place around the world, have come to the realization that we are living at the end of the growth economy which began with the industrial revolution. Today’s New York Times has an article on how dire the situation is for the people in the Shanxi province of China as a result of the massive coal mining operations. In that province more coal is burned in mine fires than Japan uses in its industry. Similar sights are closer at home right here in West Virginia where mountain tops are filling valleys to uncover the coal below and acid mine draining leaves the streams polluted for the future.

So if the root cause is the kind of economic growth we have been accustomed to, then the answer must be to change our thinking. This change must not just be to re-label old dysfunctional policies and make them sound good, for “smart growth" is still growth.

https://www.mecheng.osu.edu/faculty/korpela.1/oil