I suppose since then the powers that be have been doing their utmost to prevent further power cuts. But for how much longer will this be feasible, I wonder? Today's front page quotes an eminent NASA climate scientist saying that current targets for reducing emissions need to be drastically revised "if humanity wishes the state of the planet to remain anywhere near what it was when civilisation first developed". Now I know I'm peculiarly thick when it comes to matters political and economic, but can someone tell me why on earth doesn't the government start rationing electricity use somehow? Or will survival depend on some kind of mass voluntary simplicity taking place on a global scale, which would seem about as likely as a reincarnation of St Francis of Assisi being elected as world president?
Is it our collective addiction to artificial energy that is at the root of the problem? If so, what's at the root of that? Certainly we're expected to kow-tow to the great gods Economic Growth and Consumer Confidence, by wanting more, more things, more experiences, by turning night into day, by all kinds of escape, geographical, virtual, chemical. Anything, it seems, rather than just inhabiting this little present moment, which would mean facing the poverty of our selves.
Pascal wrote something to the effect that all our unhappiness stems from our inability to remain sitting quietly in our own room. What could any government do about that?