Dealing with Doom: Tackling the Triple Challenge of Energy Scarcity, Climate Change and Global Inequity

On December 1, 2008, flood waters inundated Venice once more, reaching a 20-year high of 156 cm above normal. The event scared tourists a lot more than Venetians. They have learned to adapt. Of course, Venetian authorities have seen it coming for 20 years. A massive flood barrier has been planned for decades. It was due to become operational in 2011, but financial problems once again have delayed installation by a perennial couple of years. The flood barrier is known by the apt biblical acronym MOSES. Venice is full of biblical reminders and works of art referring to doom and salvation abound. In fact, Venice has been a city of doom and salvation long before the floods started to become serious. It lost its position as a global power two centuries ago. It lost two thirds of its population in the past century and now it seems to be sinking for good. No wonder that many books have been written on the death of Venice. Yet, the city survives. Visitors keep coming in droves and Venice seems to be a place of merry wealth rather than sad poverty. The city has been courting doom for ages, yet it seems splendidly sustainable in the sense of being able to adapt resiliently. They turned doom into their own brand of sustainability. The fate of Venice invites reflection on the essence of doom and thereby the essence of sustainability. It provides an admittedly crude, yet appropriately warning, symbol for Europe’s future. The Venetian story is a harsh reminder, that Europe must develop its own brand of sustainability. The Venetian story also tells that sustainability may have more to do with surviving doom smartly than with attaining salvation purposefully. How doom and sustainability are intimately connected, and what this implies for a European brand of sustainability, are in fact the major themes of this analysis of the energy related faces of doom.