U.S. energy consumption (terawatts)

RECESSION POWER: Historical data implies that we reduce energy consumption during economic downturns. The question of our times is how we reduce energy consumption while retaining a vibrant and interesting economy.

Image by Saul Griffith and Jim McBride

each night to light my endeavors. I actually had time I see an opportunity in the concept of steampunk. to sit and think. Just a notebook, a pen, and some It appears we can worship the new and embrace candlelight, all sprinkled with calm quiet — real it, but by reducing our consumption of the old, being thinking time. more careful and thoughtful about what we waste, I had just been in London with a friend, Matt Webb. we could have quality consumption. A consumption We discussed consumerism, and the economy, and that considers the human element, and doesn’t the environment in combination. He posited that outsource it. A consumption where you know the 2008 would become known as the year of “peak person who made your bicycle or your music player. consumption.” I liked the term and the concept, but Not a consumption where all you know is that your I think that “peak consumption” implies a diminished shiny iPod was made in foreign lands and magically quality of life. This made me think about peak waste, teleported to you in a pristine and hygienic retail which is essentially the same, but with an important store using unknown amounts of CO -producing 2 nuanced difference. We all, it seems, want to know energy. The economics of this clearly need some how to live better, and how to live in a way that’s less ironing out, but we’ve managed to create an incred-damaging to the environment. Peak waste seemed to ibly complicated credit system for buying a lot of encompass this idea better, the idea that we should poorly made things, so it should be possible to use strive for a higher quality consumption through it to instead buy a few well-made things. lower waste. So, as we sit, unemployed and fearful of the All these things seemed to tell a larger story to me. unknown future, perhaps there is something beauti-

When I think of steampunk, I think of a movement ful to occupy makers. We can do the Fahrenheit 451 that glorifies the period of the new industrial revolu- of making, each of us picking up a legacy trade or tion, that first moment when people really started skill and learning it to a degree that it can be taught to enjoy fossil fuels. At the same time, steampunk and passed on, and introduce a more human face is also nostalgic for the craftsmanship and brass- to the technology we take for granted. We can even and-walnut engineering that was typical of that make that technology “green.” Let’s make sure 2008 period. “Lost knowledge” seems to typify what we was the year of peak waste. lost after that early mix of craftsmanship and the new industrial revolution. I’m sure I’m glorifying the moment, and historians will prove me wrong, but

Saul Griffith is a co-author of Howtoons and a MacArthur fellow. saulgriffith.com

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