Interesting take. With the increased consumption of energy by technology (AI, Crypto), what could be the ‘reversal’?? Won’t this overuse of available energy be limiting to other uses of the energy.
Thanks, Dan — great question. Yes, the overconsumption of energy by AI and crypto is already starting to create limits, and that’s part of the reversal. Technologies that promised abundance and efficiency begin to compete with the very systems they rely on: the grid, the climate, even social trust. The “reversal” isn’t just scarcity of energy, but the way excess undermines itself — innovation morphs into fragility. What begins as liberation can end as dependency.
Interesting piece. There are a couple points I might disagree with.
"Steam and electricity created a surplus of energy,..." I wonder if that's true. From my point of view steam and electricity represent a distribution of energy that already existed. Something was burned to make the steam. Likewise something already energetic was converted into electricity, which could then be distributed in various ways. Neither steam nor electricity is an energy source.
The important energy source we have today -- oil -- was first widely exploited in the 19th century. But production is declining, which will bring chaos sooner or later, probably sooner. The banking and finance sectors can't adapt to declining energy, and the whole system will collapse like a house of cards. But the Powers, although they are aware of it, won't admit it out loud. Instead they float the fake idea that the earth is undergoing climate change due to the activities of man. This might be true in a certain sense, but not in the way they portray it. It's a carefully contrived cover story: they want to justify limiting energy consumption per capita so as to soften the impact of declining energy.
You’re right about steam and electricity. Strictly speaking, neither is a primary energy source — both are ways of converting and distributing stored chemical or thermal energy.
My shorthand about “creating” energy was meant to describe what those technologies did at scale: they unlocked vastly more useful energy for everyday life by making concentrated energy accessible, routable, and economically deployable. Coal and oil were the fuels, yes, but the steam engine and the electrical grid rewired society so that that fuel could power factories, transport, and homes in ways that had never been possible. Think of electricity in the home: it didn’t just light a bulb, it made it possible to mass-produce and transport toasters, televisions, lamps, appliances of every kind — which exponentially multiplied the use of fossil fuels. That difference — between energy sitting idle in one place and energy available everywhere — is what I was getting at.
Your point about oil’s centrality and declining production is also important. The rise of cheap, dense fuels did turbocharge the 20th century, and the risk of peak production (and the economic fragility that would follow) is very real. I agree that our financial systems are precariously tied to assumptions of endless growth and cheap energy — that coupling is exactly one of the reversal mechanisms I’m watching.
On climate change, I see it less as a scientific question and more as a narrative one. The language has shifted — global warming, climate change, climate crisis — each turn keeps the system going by shifting blame, shifting capital, and channeling precious energy into machines designed to “solve” energy. It’s a slower, roundabout process that often burns more than it saves. Whether or not you take the science at face value, the narrative functions in a very specific way: it justifies waste in the name of virtue. A dying system needs excuses to sustain itself, and in the end it consumes its own tail, Ouroboros-style.
Hi Wendy. I am excited to learn about your blog through JHK who I have been following for decades now.
I appreciate this particular article very much. "The task is not to abolish extremes but to move with them, to act with foresight rather than denial." In this sentence and throughout, I hear you speaking to the importance of cultivating the agency to navigate these inevitable rhythms. Dr. Lawrence Heller defines agency as "there's what is and there's what we do to ourselves with what is." Awareness fosters response rather than reactivity and we could use a whole lot more of that right now.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! How serendipitous—my upcoming post this Sunday will actually be about awareness, titled The Architecture of Words. I love your connection to Dr. Heller’s definition of agency—it perfectly illuminates what I was trying to convey about moving with the rhythms of life rather than resisting them. Awareness truly is the key to responding rather than reacting, and your reflection reminds me why writing these ideas down feels so important. I’m grateful to JHK for connecting us, and I hope we continue this conversation—it’s such a vital one right now.
Wendy, week after week you present another important insight into problematic issues of the day. You are becoming something of a "touchstone" for me in evaluating what outcomes I might expect on such issues. Also, you received a nice recommendation from James Howard Kunstler's blog on Monday. I was so pleased to see you receive the recognition of a voice worthy of listening to. Many thanks for enlightening us.
Barbara, thank you so much for your kind words — they mean more than you know. And for the record, I wouldn’t be writing every week if it weren’t for Jim Kunstler. He’s truly been my rock in this journey. When I first started, I only wrote sporadically, just every few months when the mood struck. Jim was the one who nudged me to take it more seriously and told me I had to show up for my readers regularly, so they’d know they could rely on me.
In contrast to the relative he mentioned in his Monday post, Jim actually encouraged me in a very profound way. He has read every single post I’ve written and sends me a personal email with his comments on each one — often the very same morning I publish! We don’t always agree, but more often than not, he helps me see things I hadn’t noticed. I have a great deal of respect for him.
In 2023, he sent me this note that really stuck with me:
Wendy—
I read your blog before getting to work myself today. Fine as ever.
Just remember: people read because they want to commune with another intelligence. Prompting that connection is what’s important… and the most important thing about it is offering it up regularly. You don’t have to move the world each time… people just appreciate finding that spark when they seek it out and are gratified to find that it’s there. Now you know the secret of blogging.
Jim
james howard kunstler
“It’s All Good"
That encouragement sealed it for me — and I’ve been committed ever since.
Well, your response sure put a smile on my face!! I so enjoy getting James Kunstler's regular Monday and Friday emails and look forward to them as I now do yours. The line you mentioned "people read because they want to commune with another intelligence" says it all. Nothing beats that and the bond it establishes without ever having met personally; a beautiful relationship grows. Thanks Wendy for sharing this story with me........smiles.
You can add men into women on that list of reversal into opposites
Interesting take. With the increased consumption of energy by technology (AI, Crypto), what could be the ‘reversal’?? Won’t this overuse of available energy be limiting to other uses of the energy.
Thanks, Dan — great question. Yes, the overconsumption of energy by AI and crypto is already starting to create limits, and that’s part of the reversal. Technologies that promised abundance and efficiency begin to compete with the very systems they rely on: the grid, the climate, even social trust. The “reversal” isn’t just scarcity of energy, but the way excess undermines itself — innovation morphs into fragility. What begins as liberation can end as dependency.
Interesting piece. There are a couple points I might disagree with.
"Steam and electricity created a surplus of energy,..." I wonder if that's true. From my point of view steam and electricity represent a distribution of energy that already existed. Something was burned to make the steam. Likewise something already energetic was converted into electricity, which could then be distributed in various ways. Neither steam nor electricity is an energy source.
The important energy source we have today -- oil -- was first widely exploited in the 19th century. But production is declining, which will bring chaos sooner or later, probably sooner. The banking and finance sectors can't adapt to declining energy, and the whole system will collapse like a house of cards. But the Powers, although they are aware of it, won't admit it out loud. Instead they float the fake idea that the earth is undergoing climate change due to the activities of man. This might be true in a certain sense, but not in the way they portray it. It's a carefully contrived cover story: they want to justify limiting energy consumption per capita so as to soften the impact of declining energy.
Thanks, John — I appreciate the pushback.
You’re right about steam and electricity. Strictly speaking, neither is a primary energy source — both are ways of converting and distributing stored chemical or thermal energy.
My shorthand about “creating” energy was meant to describe what those technologies did at scale: they unlocked vastly more useful energy for everyday life by making concentrated energy accessible, routable, and economically deployable. Coal and oil were the fuels, yes, but the steam engine and the electrical grid rewired society so that that fuel could power factories, transport, and homes in ways that had never been possible. Think of electricity in the home: it didn’t just light a bulb, it made it possible to mass-produce and transport toasters, televisions, lamps, appliances of every kind — which exponentially multiplied the use of fossil fuels. That difference — between energy sitting idle in one place and energy available everywhere — is what I was getting at.
Your point about oil’s centrality and declining production is also important. The rise of cheap, dense fuels did turbocharge the 20th century, and the risk of peak production (and the economic fragility that would follow) is very real. I agree that our financial systems are precariously tied to assumptions of endless growth and cheap energy — that coupling is exactly one of the reversal mechanisms I’m watching.
On climate change, I see it less as a scientific question and more as a narrative one. The language has shifted — global warming, climate change, climate crisis — each turn keeps the system going by shifting blame, shifting capital, and channeling precious energy into machines designed to “solve” energy. It’s a slower, roundabout process that often burns more than it saves. Whether or not you take the science at face value, the narrative functions in a very specific way: it justifies waste in the name of virtue. A dying system needs excuses to sustain itself, and in the end it consumes its own tail, Ouroboros-style.
Hi Wendy. I am excited to learn about your blog through JHK who I have been following for decades now.
I appreciate this particular article very much. "The task is not to abolish extremes but to move with them, to act with foresight rather than denial." In this sentence and throughout, I hear you speaking to the importance of cultivating the agency to navigate these inevitable rhythms. Dr. Lawrence Heller defines agency as "there's what is and there's what we do to ourselves with what is." Awareness fosters response rather than reactivity and we could use a whole lot more of that right now.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comment! How serendipitous—my upcoming post this Sunday will actually be about awareness, titled The Architecture of Words. I love your connection to Dr. Heller’s definition of agency—it perfectly illuminates what I was trying to convey about moving with the rhythms of life rather than resisting them. Awareness truly is the key to responding rather than reacting, and your reflection reminds me why writing these ideas down feels so important. I’m grateful to JHK for connecting us, and I hope we continue this conversation—it’s such a vital one right now.
I'm in. Thanks for your commitment to writing. I look forward to continuing the conversation.
Wendy, week after week you present another important insight into problematic issues of the day. You are becoming something of a "touchstone" for me in evaluating what outcomes I might expect on such issues. Also, you received a nice recommendation from James Howard Kunstler's blog on Monday. I was so pleased to see you receive the recognition of a voice worthy of listening to. Many thanks for enlightening us.
Barbara, thank you so much for your kind words — they mean more than you know. And for the record, I wouldn’t be writing every week if it weren’t for Jim Kunstler. He’s truly been my rock in this journey. When I first started, I only wrote sporadically, just every few months when the mood struck. Jim was the one who nudged me to take it more seriously and told me I had to show up for my readers regularly, so they’d know they could rely on me.
In contrast to the relative he mentioned in his Monday post, Jim actually encouraged me in a very profound way. He has read every single post I’ve written and sends me a personal email with his comments on each one — often the very same morning I publish! We don’t always agree, but more often than not, he helps me see things I hadn’t noticed. I have a great deal of respect for him.
In 2023, he sent me this note that really stuck with me:
Wendy—
I read your blog before getting to work myself today. Fine as ever.
Just remember: people read because they want to commune with another intelligence. Prompting that connection is what’s important… and the most important thing about it is offering it up regularly. You don’t have to move the world each time… people just appreciate finding that spark when they seek it out and are gratified to find that it’s there. Now you know the secret of blogging.
Jim
james howard kunstler
“It’s All Good"
That encouragement sealed it for me — and I’ve been committed ever since.
Well, your response sure put a smile on my face!! I so enjoy getting James Kunstler's regular Monday and Friday emails and look forward to them as I now do yours. The line you mentioned "people read because they want to commune with another intelligence" says it all. Nothing beats that and the bond it establishes without ever having met personally; a beautiful relationship grows. Thanks Wendy for sharing this story with me........smiles.
Simply beautiful. Thank you.
Thanks for the warning…. Great piece.
Consequences were terrifying enough when we had a clue what they might look like. Now…….