Even far-sighted proposals like Al Gore’s challenge to put America on a clean-energy diet in 10 years tend to presuppose that the resources (steel, cement, silicon, copper…and oil) will be there not only to build the clean energy sources themselves, but to completely repair and upgrade an electricity grid that doesn’t have the capacity to carry the electricity that would be generated. But oil isn’t the only resource that’s peaking in supply, and trends suggest that these kinds of raw materials may soon be scarce at any price, if they’re available at all.

The other intrinsic fallacy is that electricity - and nearly all “green” power sources are about generating electricity - can replace fossil fuels. They can to a degree, but the peak oil crisis is fundamentally a liquid fuels crisis, because liquid fuels run our cars, trucks, tractors, ships and airplanes. Even with massive investments in batteries, fuel cell technology and electric vehicles, it would take decades to change our infrastructure so it could run on electricity. And again, we’re unlikely to have the necessary quantities of raw materials to do that — and we certainly don’t have the time.

Europeanization is Vancouver Peak Oil’s way of framing the only real solution to this peak in oil and raw materials. Europe uses less than 50% as much energy per person as North America does - specifically, in 2005, the European average was 146.4 million BTU/person, vs. 280.3 for the average American, and a whopping 346.2 for the average Canadian. (Figures from the EIA. See here for a graphical version.)

Europeanization, therefore, represents taking a leap downward in energy use by 50%, so that the years ahead are marked by energy surplus, rather than a slow miserable attempt to maintain the status quo with a relentlessly diminishing amount of energy. This is our goal for the Lower Mainland, and you’ll note that it suggests an entirely different set of solutions than attempting to stave off the energy crisis by either digging more holes in the ground, or by hoping for a technological solution that depends on increasingly scarce and expensive resources.

What do you think of, when you think of Europe? Denser cities. Efficient mass transit. Smaller living spaces with fewer gadgets. Walkability. But it also suggests long lunches on the boulevard. Good wine. Time to talk about the affairs of the world (and the affairs of politicians). This is the vision we have for the Lower Mainland, and for a better quality of life for its citizens.

Radical changes will be needed to achieve this, and time is of the essence. We have to stop wasting our money on future stranded assets like Gateway and the YVR expansion, and move quickly to make changes in our pattern of community and transportation infrastructure (read: lots of electric buses) before every OTHER city in North America takes these obvious steps, and makes change more difficult and expensive, or perhaps even impossible.

But the most radical change of all is changing the way we think - the way we see the future. Envision a bit of London, Paris, Berlin and Prague - we can benefit from their achievements in low energy use, and bring that lifestyle here, to the most beautiful area in the world. Who says you can’t have it all?