There Is No Energy Crisis, There is a Crisis of Ignorance...

[bridgit]

Run time: 06:02 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fVI3BRBC6o   Posted on YouTube: November 16, 2006 By YouTube Member: GENICorp Views on YouTube: 59776   Posted on DU: November 19, 2006 By DU Member: bridgit Views on DU: 973

 

[Deja Q]

1. I hope they're right.

Especially with stabilizing the world population.

But the video glosses over little irrelevant issues like transport, fertilizers, plastics, et cetera...

[bridgit]

2. hey good morning & yeah you're right...

the entropy alone associated with transport will need to be figured out somehow, nothing changes hands without some loss & friction :hi: :donut:

[Deja Q]

5. Good morning to you too!

:hi: :donut:

I've seen billboards in St Paul pointing to a URL that say eminent domain is allowing corporations to freely take over land they otherwise shouldn't have. I wish I could remember all the details. I used to agree with it... But when thinking of the context of 'peak oil' and such, mixing residential, commercial, and industrial zones may not be such a bad thing after all and for this I'd be willing to compromise. Everything is closer, people can walk there and carry things back (this used to be done and it's strength-building), and so on. The only problem here is, Americans have to work more hours and more jobs for pay they used to get. So the imbalance remains, albeit in a different form: There's less time for personal or family issues... symbiosis is definitely spiraling down into entropy. :(

[orpupilofnature57]

3. Excellent EyE opener bridget ! Two Names, Al Gore

[bridgit]

4. yup...

B-)

[rman]

6. key phrase:

"we are only using a small fraction of the available reneable energy on our planet"

So much for the "the problem is over population" argument.

[bridgit]

7. call me silly, but i can easily see the world from space with a shiny new...

ring of voltaic panels from it's equatorious belly like a sun belt...the wind blows too, tides rise & fall, there are many exciting ways to generate 'juice'...i just think we should be plugging it all in you bet ;)

[Lorien]

8. Population will always be a serious issue

energy alone won't overcome our need for land and natural resources. Deforestation and desertification are just two of many issues related to overpopulation. The more people we have, the more food is needed-and available land needs time to rest and recover between it's productive years, otherwise it turns into unusable desert.

Personally, I've chosen not to have children because I'm fully aware of the hellish future that awaits every child born today.

[rman]

11. Deforestation and desertification are a result of this 'civilization'

believing in a number of convenient myths (as Chomsky puts it); "that the destructive forces that humans create are limited, that the world is an infinite resource, and that the world is an infinite garbage can.

Without belief in those myths "overpopulation" would not nearly the problem that it is perceived to be.
With enough energy, deforestation and desertification can be reversed.
The greedier the ruling class, the less there is for the rest of us. The hellish future that possibly awaits humanity has little to do with overpopulation and a lot to do with the greed of the ruling class.

[skids]

9. Corporatist environmentalism: a mixed bag here.

While I commend these globalists for going green and being positive there are still fundamental problems with the philosophy they are projecting.

They want a global trade in energy controlled by a few mega-corporations that operate with very little accountability to the people. Notice they do not talk much about storage systems and local off-grid power.

This is kind of telling because off-grid power is the only means by which less developed areas can raise their standard of living in the short term. Even such simple things as solar lamp systems to replace kerosene lamps and wind/solar powered water treatment have been showing great success in bringing the developing world both improved living standards and a path to a lower carbon footprint.

So should these people wait while huge grid lines go up so that some energy company in Europe can sell it's excess to them (keeping in mind they have barely money to pay for it.)

Or should they be looking at solar panels and battery banks that do not require any lines to be run through the jungle into their houses?

I vote the latter, and hasten to say that should be the goal for a good number of people in the developed world as well -- having your own on-site renewable energy sources is not merely a matter of the environmental impact, it is protection. Protection against service disruptions, and protection against consolidation of power (not "electrical power" but political) by large facelss interests.

Which is why even more than transmission networks, we need storage technology. Fortunately there's a lot going on there -- new lead acid technology, flywheels, huge capacitors, and of course the coming of cheaper CPV (concentrating photovoltaics) and more affordable/maintainable micro-wind generators.

As far as I am concerned, that's where the action is at and that is where our policy energy should be directed. This initiative is an attempt to coopt our attention towards globalism's ends.

[bridgit]

10. short of each and every person making a singular investment in their...

personal homes & lifestyles, there will be some form of grid that will distribute; ideally it would be preferable that we all made that personal investment if we are able to, i.e. here in the electro-grid district i am in, SMUD, they offer many incentives to do just that, and some have taken them up on the offer

here's another look into how it could proceed http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x6249 but where there is density, and concentration of population; i wouldn't think they, regular peeps, should be excluded from the benefits of a renewable future, on the contrary they should be included and i say equitably so

i understand your concerns for globalization, but i do not per se fear corporations...only perhaps the evil ones :scared:

as well there will need to be a change imo regarding how it is humans assemble, though please do not suggest that am suggesting they do not, in that i refer to the architecture of human assembly

were we to know what we know now, we would perhaps have done the entire relationship between the rural, the urban, and the metropolis differently; while having constructed in that process more easily managed, maintained; and perhaps even more efficient forms of transmission http://www.arcosanti.org