“The 20th century was the century of abundance. The 21st will be one of limits.”
We frequently discuss energy transition, relocalization and sobriety, but partly as if they were simple options. The author leads us to see that these are no longer options, but realities. This book makes this perfectly clear, and not by hyperbole or by trying to scare the reader. It’s not a doomsday story, nor is it about eternal progress. It simply welcomes the fact that we’ve reached the limits. Scarcity is no longer the exception and is now becoming the norm.
Oil is at the heart of his analysis. He reminds us of a little-known fact: Energy Returned on Energy Invested (EROEI). From 100:1 at the beginning of the twentieth century, it now stands at 11:1, a figure that threatens our entire equilibrium. Nothing can be done without abundant, cheap energy.
Electricity is not a silver bullet, just a vector. It’s a means of transporting energy.
The author also mentions minerals and raw materials. We depend disproportionately on scarce resources, often from unstable countries. We use them for everything: telephones, batteries, infrastructure. But if one link breaks, we have no plan B.
Freight transport is under pressure worldwide. It has a very low profit margin. One small thing can paralyze an entire production operation. Even industrial agriculture depends on it: fertilizers, machinery, transport… in reality, nothing is autonomous.
It’s a system we’ve built ourselves. Over-specialization, globalization and the cult of efficiency have left us unable to cope when things go wrong. We’ve pursued efficiency and forgotten resilience.
Renaud Duterme links this to the economic logic handed down by Ricardo and the rise of neoliberalism. The issue is not just technological; it’s a political vision.
In the final section, he is less alarmist, but just as serious. He says we’re going to suffer shortages, and the question is really this: do we want to suffer them or be prepared for them?
It’s not a question of stopping everything or going backwards. It’s an invitation to reconsider what we make, why and for whom. Relocate where it really counts. To overcome this system of unlimited growth and recognize that this century will have limits – physical and environmental, as well as social.
In other words, this is not a technical manual or a political tract. It’s a clear, honest text. It confronts us with reality. It doesn’t try to scare us; it tries to convince us, by giving us the facts, and it succeeds.
It’s a book to read not so much for what you can learn from it, but for what you can prepare yourself for. Because, in the future, it won’t just be a question of technologies, but of choices, compromises and even collective thinking.
Renaud Duterme holds a degree in development sciences from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he also teaches geography. Attentive to questions of inequality and ecology, he is the author of De quoi l’effondrement est-il le nom? (2016, foreword by Pablo Servigne), Petit manuel pour une géographie de combat (2020) and Nos mythologies écologiques (2021).
Florence Anglès ‘ note
