A January 1, 2005, editorial of The New York Times, authored by Jared Diamond, was entitled "The Ends of the World as We Know Them." He describes how societies have collapsed due to, among other things, abuse of the environmental resources that constitute the human habitat. This may sound melodramatic, but Diamond's concern echoes ours--that humanity is moving toward self-destruction by purposely managing economic growth at a historical level of around 4% per year, a level which results in environmentally destructive exponential consumption growth. The consequences of this growth are pervasive, and profoundly affect the world socio-economic system.

As Diamond suggests, we may be facing a time of transition for all nations. The brutal terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, in New York, the school bombing in Russia, the genocides carried out in many countries, and other such worldwide events indicate that a crisis is brewing. Fundamental changes are needed in human behavior, both individually and collectively. It is our hope that humanity can steer this transition toward a better, sustainable world rather than allowing it to take its own course. In order to make progress toward sustainability, not only must the interwoven societal causes of the present crisis be ameliorated, but also the modes of human behavior that fuel the crisis must be thoroughly understood both from a short-term and a long-term perspective.

This issue of our newsletter is the first in a series, each of which will examine a particular perspective or "view" of the world environmental crisis. The feature article of this issue addresses the energy perspective under normal conditions. Specifically, it addresses some of the important economic, financial, political, and environmental feedback loops in the world system that have interacted to produce the changes in the price and physical flow of oil in and through the world economy during most of the last century. A century of using inexpensive oil to fuel the energy sources designed into the technologies developed by the extremely innovative scientists of the 20th century has made humanity dangerously over-dependent on oil to fuel its economic growth now, at the time when oil is no longer cheap and abundant. Had technology been as effective at developing innovative renewable energy sources as it was at developing power-hungry machinery, oil would not be, as it actually is, the most important resource in the sustenance of the growth of world human consumption.

How humanity is handling the transition from oil to its renewable energy replacement, whatever that may turn out to be, is being driven by human needs, attitudes, emotions, and motivations as people respond to the conditions of the times in which they find themselves. Miss Adkins, my high school English teacher , used to say, "In times of crisis, people revert to type." We are seeing now, in tragic examples, some of these reversions. Like all crises, the oil crisis is, in the ultimate analysis, a crisis of the human spirit. We invite you to read this newsletter on the energy perspective thoughtfully, and give us the benefit of your comments and observations.

Respectfully,
Luis T. Gutierrez
Editor