"Those that do not study history are doomed to repeat it"
That seems like a fair enough assessment given our current woes. I find it increasingly amazing that given our rapid and prolific state of inventiveness (mobile phones on which we can watch full length feature films, voice activated interactive computer systems, global information and telecommunication networks) we still fail to understand how our decisions impact our ever shrinking world.
34 years after our last oil crisis America (and much of the industrialized world) finds ourselves again on the precipice of what some are calling a complete economic breakdown. Once again we see how closely we are tied to international energy production but are unwilling to make the self sacrifice needed to alleviate the burden. I find it so strange that a country who constantly involves itself in international affairs fails to realize how our own personal actions affects said international world. Americans systematically use and discard proportionally the vast majority of our planet's resources. Cities develop massive automotive infrastructure routes to cut commute times by mere minutes which justify further deconcentration of communities resulting in more energy/fuel being needed to navigate sprawling community. We live in a society where it is easier and cheaper to throw out a broken appliance than to have it repaired, the cost subsidized by impoverished foreign workers and the goods shipped to this country with the expense of a massive consumption of energy.
It is intriguing to me how interconnected everything really is if you take the time to examine it.
For those of you with piqued interest I direct you to the 1973; Sorry, Out of Gas exhibit on view at the CCA (Canadian Centre for Architecture) until April which highlights some of the architectural responses to the oil crisis of "green pioneers like Micheal Reynolds and Steve Baer".
Metorpolis magazine also acknowledges that the show is "also a warning to contemporary architects enamored with solely technological-driven solutions, and a call for societal changes to combat looming ecological disaster."
additional resources:
thestar - 35 years on, why we need another gas crisis
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