Fleeing Vesuvius chapters

New Zealand edition of Fleeing Vesuvius is going online

This week we're beginning to upload excerpts from the 100-page appendix to Fleeing Vesuvius which was published in New Zealand over the summer. It should be of interest to anyone who is preparing for the transition to a post-fossil-fuel economy. In his preface, Jonathan Boston of the School of Government at Victoria University of Wellington provides an overview of the many environmental challenges we face and suggests that the book, which he considers to be "unusual, critically important and refreshingly provocative", will provide useful tools to help us meet them.

On the cusp of collapse: complexity, energy, and the globalised economy

By David Korowicz, from Fleeing Vesuvius. The systems on which we rely for our financial transactions, food, fuel and livelihoods are so inter-dependent that they are better regarded as facets of a single global system. Maintaining and operating this global system requires a lot of energy and, because the fixed costs of operating it are high, it is only cost-effective if it is run at near full capacity. As a result, if its throughput falls because less energy is available, it does not contract in a gentle, controllable manner. Instead it is subject to catastrophic collapse.

Enough: a worldview for positive futures

by Anne B. Ryan, from Fleeing Vesuvius. While the adoption of new technologies is crucial, so too is the need for a new, self-limiting worldview recognising that “enough is plenty”. This philosophy of “enough” is about the optimum — having exactly the right amount and using it gracefully. Adopting such a worldview would nourish a culture of adapted human behaviour in which social justice could prevail and at least some of the Earth’s ecosystems would have the chance to renew themselves.

Busy doing nothing – seven reasons for humanity’s inertia in the face of critical threats and how we might remove them

from Fleeing Vesuvius, by Mark Rutledge and Brian Davey. Seven reasons why humans have failed to curb their excessive resource consumption are outlined here, some of which are systemic, others the result of the way humanity evolved. Our best chance of counteracting them will come when the crisis pushes us out of our comfortable ruts.