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Green Party File Photo By Ian Turner News Staff
Point Grey’s Green Party MLA candidate, Stephen Kronstein, is aware he will not win on May 12. Hence, he is freely toting throughout Point Grey one issue: peak oil.
The Vancouver native is currently employed in the film industry, managing and scouting film locations. He is married and 32 years old. In 2006, Kronstein graduated with honours from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, where he was editor of the Kwantlen Chronicle. He also studied environmental geography and English at Langara College.
Kronstein’s awareness campaign is on ‘peak oil’, the theory that oil production will peak in the near future followed by an abrupt decline.This will, according to Kronstein, cause turmoil as society will be unable to adjust to the ensuing oil-less world.
Peak oil will severely disrupt the world’s food lines as they are heavily reliant on oil. To offset the reduced amount of imported food, Kronstein argues that all Vancouverites will need at least two acres to sustain themselves. This, he notes, is not possible. The result, he believes, is a total collapse, which will lead to violence as humans feverishly hunt for food.
He predicts this collapse will occur within ten years.
To increase the odds of survival, he recommends learning how to farm. While changes at the citizen level are welcomed, he believes the only possible hope lies with a systemic, top-to-bottom reorganization of society that most governments force. He spoke of his own lifestyle changes, but admitted unprompted that they were insufficient.
He applauded Gordon Campbell’s carbon tax as a good first step, though still insufficient. Kronstein also harshly criticized the NDP for opposing the carbon tax.
He said he finds it encouraging that other MLA candidates have privately voiced genuine concerns about peak oil, but he only sees political games ahead that do not address peak oil’s effect.
Despite Kronstein’s single-issue campaign, he has run for the Green Party at the provincial, municipal and federal levels, and supports the BC-Single Transferable Vote system that is up for referendum.
