Guest blog by Bill McKibben

The idea that the world works best as a fully globalized economy is an artifact of the world of cheap fossil fuel. The average bite of food that we eat, for instance, travels 2000 miles before it reaches our lips. Which makes a great deal of sense if oil is inexpensive, and if we pay no attention to the effects of burning it (those pesky melting icecaps!). My guess is that we will start to evolve a very different looking planet if and when we start to take seriously the actual cost of energy.

I think the logic of a world like that tends towards localization, not globalization; and it tends towards durability, not growth. The vested interests of our current system will fight hard to maintain it, but in the long run they are defending an illogical system, as soon as the economic law of gravity starts to shift. Which it will, if the price of fossil fuel ever reflects its cost.

Bill McKibben 10/09/2007

About the author: BILL MCKIBBEN is an environmentalist and writer who frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the risks of genetic engineering. His first book, The End of Nature, was published in 1989. It is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change.His most recent book, Deep Economy: the Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future, was published in March 2007 and addresses the shortcomings of the growth economy and envisions a transition to more local-scale enterprise. Bill is a frequent contributor to The New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, Orion Magazine, Mother Jones, The New York Review of Books, Granta, Rolling Stone, and Outside. He is also a board member and contributor to Grist Magazine. He has been awarded Guggenheim and Lyndhurst Fellowships, and won the Lannan Prize for nonfiction writing in 2000.

See http://www.midyork.org/regionalread/author_bio.htm for a complete biography and visit Bill's official website at http://www.billmckibben.com/