At Exxon and Mobil, job losses will exceed 9,000. Local Energy Rather than pursuing such a destructive energy policy in which corporations continue to overload the atmosphere with global-warming gases, destroy jobs and damage sensitive ecosystems society could be using local renewable energy sources. Some are available at every location around the globe. Consequently, small-scale decentralised economies would be able to make use of a range of local energy sources for local needs. On the other hand, large industrialised economies are locked into centralised power sources that convert fossil fuel or nuclear power into electricity, which is then transmitted over hundreds or even thousands of miles.
Energy efficiency is vastly under-exploited.
US journalist Ross Gelbspan points out that as a bridge to a new energy era , the economics panel of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has identified a number of no regrets steps. Such measures should be encouraged at the same time as a switch to green energy. Removing fossil fuel and nuclear tax credits and subsidies which currently promote the destruction of the global environment and diverting them to windmill farms, home-based fuel cells, photovoltaic panels and hydrogen fuel plants would provide the necessary boost to propel renewable energy into the big league of global industry. In modern civilisation , the population tends to cluster in large cities in which a high-consumption lifestyle is encouraged. Profligate energy use, international trade and the concentration of millions of people in urban centres are thus intimately linked.