Some wonder whether the present economic slump will elicit a change of direction and faster progress in reducing environmental harm. Jesse Ausubel and Paul Waggoner, assisted by Smriti Rao, examined what happened to USA energy use and emissions during the slumps of the 1930s and after World War II.  A short essay, “The Jack Rabbit of Depression, or Do economic slumps benefit environment?†provides our answer. Two 40-second animations prepared by Smriti show the year-by-year changes from 1920 to 1940 of energy intensity and carbon emissions.
Keeping a steady course rather than darting about was also a theme of Jesse’s address “Natural Gas and the Jack Rabbit†to the Power South Energy Cooperative on 22 January 2009.