Thinking The Unthinkable

[4dsc]

"Down one road lies disaster, down the other utter catastrophe.Let us hope we have the wisdom to choose wisely." - Woody Allen

Introduction

Oil depletion is just the first of a series of resource crisis humanity is about to face because there are just too many of us! This century we will face peak resources, period.

There are many fascinating and exciting renewable energy developments. Wind turbines, solar energy, geothermal, biomass, wave and tidal power schemes which are all important energy sources for the future - and could at least help keep the electricity grid going to some degree!

The popular assumption is that these renewable energy sources, perhaps also including uranium, plutonium and just possibly nuclear, which seems to be coming back on the agenda, will smoothly replace fossil fuels as these become scarce, thanks to our inherited technological expertise. However, although these all produce electricity they are not liquid fuels.

Unfortunately, these popular assumptions could hardly be more wrong.

The energy budget must be positive. Output must exceed input. Too much tends to be expected of renewable energy generators today, because the contribution of fossil fuels to the input side is poorly understood.



http://www.countercurrents.org/po-church170706.htm

[Parisle]

1. There's gonna be some changes

---- For one thing, businesspeople and weekend vacationers won't be hopping onto airplanes to the tune of 5,000 flights everyday. Easy, everyday cross-country travel will gradually disappear from our list of options. We'll have two vehicles,... an electric one for in-town work and errands,.. and a super-efficient reciprocating engine vehicle for longer trips, one that burns an expensive synthetic mix. And those "longer trips" will be far less frequent, as well. Petro-fuels will be largely set aside for the military.

---- But travel and transportation will show the greatest shifts in habit and behavior. We'll develop sources of electricity,.... and passive solar & geothermal technologies exist NOW which would make home heating and cooling a relatively cost-free equation.

---- Americans are just going to find themselves increasingly staying put in one place. It might not be such a bad thing.