A Resilient Society

Part four of a four-part video series. Released in conjunction with Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels.

In this short video, Richard Heinberg asks and explores, “what would a more resilient society look like?”

First, it would be less prone to shocks in the first place. It would reduce exposure to financial shocks by allowing less speculation and by forgiving a great deal of existing debt. It would reduce exposure to environmental shocks by learning to live within resource limits. That would mean dramatically slashing overall resource and energy use while doing a better job of reusing and recycling nonrenewable materials. It would also mean gradually downsizing human population levels. At the same time, we would make it a top priority to protect remaining wild ecosystems and their species.

A resilient society would foster an ethic of sharing and cooperation, rather than ruthless, winner-take-all competition.

This video is the final installment in a four-part series by Richard Heinberg and Post Carbon Institute. All four videos can be viewed here. The themes covered in these videos are much more thoroughly explored in Heinberg’s latest book, Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels.