The ways we never used to be

The title of this article is inspired by a blog post I read a while ago called, The Way Publishing Never Was. It referred to a book called ‘The Way Things Never Were’, which tried to debunk some of the myths of the “Good Old Days”.

And it got me thinking – how will people view this generation of the energy industry in 50 or 100 years? There’s certainly a lot for them to look at, what with massive hikes in energy prices, international conflicts, and a race for net zero, but what will they get right? What will they get wrong? What, for them, will be the ways we never used to be?

I’m no scholar of history, but I like to look back at times gone by. I marvel at the ingenuity of the Victorians, the chivalrous knights of medieval England, or the taming of Roman Britain with straight roads and aqueducts.

But the romance often covers a darker side. The begging orphans of Victorian London thrown into the workhouse, the low life expectancy and despotic rule of the Middle Ages, or the constant war and primitive existence of first century Britain.

Keeping the right balance is vital so that we can truly learn from history. We want to keep hold of the good things (the ingenuity, the chivalry and the straight roads), but we aspire to reject the bad things (the child poverty, the tyranny and the conflict).

So how will we be (mis)remembered? And what legacy can we inspire?

For those in the future with a romantic bent, perhaps we will be remembered as the generation who banished fossil fuels. We’ll be seen as those who buried coal back in the ground, stoppered the gas and capped the oil. They will wish that they were the ones erecting the first wind turbines in the face of ambivalence and ridicule, or imagining a revolution that would have seas of solar panels rolling through our fields. We’ll be remembered as the ones who brought real energy security and eliminated price volatility, through national and international co-operation.

?But for those with a critical eye we may be the ones who dragged our feet and forgot about the plight of our offspring. We’ll be remembered as the ones who took ‘eco’ cruises through oceans of plastic, burnt gallons of fuel in our cars to attend climate conferences only for nothing to get done (again), and who despaired at the ruination of the rainforests whilst eating our palm-oil filled chocolate spread toast off our mahogany tables. We’ll be the ones who bickered whilst the planet burned.

Undoubtedly future generations will not remember us correctly. But I know I want to do all I can to ensure that the future romantics are right, that we actually did the right thing. That requires us to take the long view in what we are doing now, to work not just for the wellbeing of us here and now, but also for the benefit of those whose job it will be to weigh us in the scales of history.