Notes

• Much of our current model of economic development is based on economies of scale, locally and internationally.
• Mass production takes place on a large scale in a few places (increasingly in large factories in China). Mass consumption is also favoured: shopping malls replace local town centres and big-box retailers replace corner stores.
• This economic model requires large-scale distribution networks (roads, pipes, wires), and these networks require a lot of cheap energy to move things around. Goods, people, information, water & waste are shipped, transported, pumped, transmitted and processed on an industrial scale.
• When energy becomes scarcer, and therefore more expensive, economic development that relies on economies of scale will become less and less feasible.