Aberdeen

Aberdeen has metabolized whatever the sea provides for 800 years. Medieval fishermen harvested herring from the North Sea. Victorian builders quarried granite from Rubislaw—the grey stone that built the Houses of Parliament terrace and Waterloo Bridge, earning Aberdeen its 'Granite City' nickname. When the quarry closed in 1971, oil arrived to fill the void.

North Sea petroleum transformed Aberdeen from a regional center to the 'oil capital of Europe.' The first commercial oil flowed in 1975; by the industry's peak, production reached 4.5 million barrels daily. Half a million jobs depended directly or indirectly on the energy sector. Workers earned an average £88,000—triple Scotland's median wage. The city's harbor, which once exported fish and stone, became a logistics hub for offshore platforms.

The 2014 oil price crash exposed the dangers of monoculture. Job losses, rising unemployment, and falling property values followed. Production has declined to a third of its peak and is projected to reach 400,000 barrels daily by 2050. Aberdeen faces the familiar resource-extraction pattern: boom, peak, decline.

The pivot to renewables has begun. Scotland's vast offshore wind capacity requires servicing; Aberdeen's oil-servicing infrastructure can adapt. The UK government will locate GB Energy headquarters here. The city has set a 2045 net-zero target. Aberdeen Harbour's expansion accommodates the offshore wind supply chain.

By 2026, Aberdeen will test whether eight centuries of extracting what the sea offers can transition to harvesting wind rather than oil—whether the oil capital of Europe can become the net zero capital of the world.