ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF INSANITY
Bob Lloyd
Raynbird Consulting
REVIEWED BY JOCELYN HARRIS
What on Earth is going on? All those lovely summery days felt horribly wrong for Dunedin, while up north, cyclones and monsoon-like rain devastated homes, farms, businesses and roads. Associate Professor Bob Lloyd, former head of Energy Studies in the Physics Department at the University of Otago, explains why in his passionate, essential book, One Hundred Years of Insanity.
Put simply, we are in trouble. We consume crude oil as though it will last forever, even though peak oil, meaning the end of economically extractable energy, is fast approaching. Global heating, caused by burning those same fossil fuels, already unleashes havoc world-wide. Together, says Lloyd, they could extinguish life on Earth.
Lloyd traces the climate crisis back to an expanding world population and our addiction to economic growth. It follows that to decrease CO2 emissions, we must decrease growth. But how, when militarism and the struggle for trade dominance produce so many emissions? In 2022 alone, the world spent a staggering $22 trillion dollars on warfare, and only about $100 billion on climate change mitigation. Scientists reckon that the chance of staying below 1.5C warming is only 6-10%. The triggering of climatic tipping points looks inevitable.
Lloyd calls for drastic political and social action to reverse a catastrophic overshoot of CO2. Politicians managed to restrict well-being for long-term gain during Covid, he says, so will they do the same to fend off climate change? Unlikely, for that would be seen as tyranny, triggering social unrest, unemployment, and further waves of migration. Desperate governments might even reach for the nuclear option. On 24 January 2023, The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists revealed that the Doomsday Clock now stands at 90 seconds to midnight.
Two decades ago, the phrase ‘‘climate change’’ appeared rarely in the mainstream media, even after the great James Hansen, a world expert on climatology, spoke at Lloyd’s request to an overflowing audience on campus. Today, our children understand there is no Planet B. Can adults also accept that ‘‘sustainable growth’’ is a contradiction in terms?
One Hundred Years of Insanity is a remarkable resource, crammed full of matter yet leavened by Lloyd’s trademark wry humour and quotations from the Eagles and Tom Lehrer. He gathers up his evidence and arguments into a ‘‘play on the world stage’’ about what he calls the neoliberal love affair with the free market. Historical commentators range from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Antonio Guterres, Greta Thunberg, Pope Francis and hundreds more. Lloyd knows all too well that his ‘‘play’’ will unnerve and unsettle his audience.
Yet, if we are to survive, we have to heed bearers of bad news. Then unite to do what we must: Decrease growth.
Jocelyn Harris taught English at the University of Otago. She was a founding member of Sustainable Dunedin City and Wise Response
