Descent Pathways in a City of Gold

Abstract

We scale the dizzying heights of the Eureka Tower situated in the central business district. As the sun sets and the skies darken, we look out over our ‘city of gold’ from the 88th floor. It is one thing to know facts about fossil fuel consumption. It is quite another to be struck down by an awesome view of an infernal urban landscape, reaching out to the horizons, with the distant representation of its glowing energy services at once beautiful and terrifying. The tramps suspect that a post-industrial economy run entirely on renewable energy will not look much like this city of gold. Beyond carbon civilisation lies an energy descent future, which we maintain implies transcending the growth model of progress and its urban manifestations.