Monbiot's manifesto

George Monbiot proposes a new way of living.

A surplus of available energy is a remarkable historical and biological anomaly. A supply of oil that exceeds demand has permitted us to do what all species strive to do - expand the ecological space we occupy - but without encountering direct competition for the limiting resource.

Humans, however, suffer less from environmental constraints in this sense, because our ingenuity means we can invent solutions to problems we face and problems we will face in the future. This is how Julian Simon taught us why Malthus was wrong.

New turns out to be very old - very little use of fossil fuels (except the good ones - parafin and wood), very little machinery, commune.... However, it is curious that the people who live this way (a large majority of 3rd world inhabitants) choose to migrate to the West or aspire to live like us in the West. I see few reports of impoverished Africans risking their lives to get to the UK or US and going to live in eco-communes. Perhaps the media bias is just not reporting these stories.