The difference between the main engine and a starter motor

> “The fossil fuel deposits of our Spaceship Earth correspond to our automobile’s storage battery which must be conserved to turn over our main engine’s self-starter. Thereafter, our ‘main engine,’ the life regenerating processes, must operate exclusively on our vast daily energy income from the powers of wind, tide, water, and the direct Sun radiation energy.” – Buckminster Fuller.

I’ve thought similar things about a lot of situations: taking a sabbatical, for instance, isn’t sustainable, but it can recharge the storage battery, and power the setting up of new practices that are sustainable. Booster rockets are another analogy–you can’t use them forever, but they can help you break free of gravity. It’s important that we use fossil fuels, booster rockets, and sabbaticals to set us up for when they’re gone.