World Energy Use - There's No Tomorrow - Let's Fix This!

My Nissan Leaf Forum

Help Support My Nissan Leaf Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Sorry gents. And I unwound from the fetal position and crawled out from under my desk to post that, too. ;)

The good news is that the video was posted on the Australian Permaculture site - and the permaculture (and transition movement) folks (I think) have many of the answers we'll need. And there are no doomers in the bunch!

http://permaculture.org.au/
http://www.transitionnetwork.org/

On another bright side, me thinks, is a reminder from the folks that have been crunching the bible code for a number of years. Many of the items found during the number crunching also contain this bit of text:

Will You Change This?

The fat lady isn't singing quite yet...
(Though some think the choir's warming up... :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :lol: :lol: :lol: :eek: :eek: :p )
 
The fact that YouTube comments are disabled always raises an eyebrow for me. Granted, the comments section of YouTube videos is often a cesspit of idiocy, but preemptively disabling them sends a message that the author is not willing to entertain any discussion. :|

They are, of course, exactly right about the problem of economic and population growth. These will require political solutions - in other words, we're screwed here.

BUT! The whole last third or so of the video has a strong sense of "There's no perfect solution, let's not bother trying." They say solar won't work, geothermal won't work, hydro won't work, nuclear won't work, biofuels won't work, wind won't work, conservation won't work... and they put all these things in comparison to our total needs (eg you'd need 140,000 square miles of solar panels to meet world demand) but never actually account for the combined effect of all these partial solutions. This, despite opening that segment with asking if a"patchwork" of alternatives could solve the problem.

Continued growth is impossible, but I don't think freezing the world more or less as it is (w.r.t population/economy) is impossible, nor do I think continued technological progress is impossible - all we have to do is not let the lack of a perfect solution paralyze us into inaction.
=Smidge=
 
Its the same message as "Collapse", where all of the problems are spelled out in detail, but no good solutions are offered, it's all doom and gloom.

There are some energy solutions in the works, but you don't hear much about them, H3 for example, most countries have plans to "mine the moon" for H3, and finally get fusion reactors working, don't know if its going to happen, or happen in time, but it may be a partial solution to the energy needs of the world.

population control, by natural or man made solutions/disasters will ultimatley be the solution. Not everyone is going to make it, it's just not possible...
 
Smidge204 said:
all we have to do is not let the lack of a perfect solution paralyze us into inaction.
=Smidge=

Yes! I for one do not care when comments are disabled. Not everything is open for debate or should be tolerated as a debate.
 
I disagree with the assessment on rare-earths. While it is true the China is the only current producer, there are large deposits all over the planet that are currently untapped. While they are still a finite resource, it isn't as bad off already as they make it sound.

But overall, the message is correct. That message being that our continued growth is unsustainable. SOmething has to give eventually.
 
Herm said:
Its all doom, that is why I wont be bothered to get out of bed on Nov 6 to vote for Obama.. its of no use.

That's OK, on November 7th you will be roused from bed at a very early 3AM with banging on your door. Better sleep in striped pajamas that night so as not to freeze when you are herded onto the trains.
 
Matt Ridley has a very different view of the future in The Rational Optimist

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqet1woKe98[/youtube]

For him the progress up to now has been mainly because specialization and exchange and going back to autosufficiency is no solution at all.
 
Two points about Mr. Ridley's point of view. The first is that it's a nice summary of how we got to today - so it's historical rather than forward-looking. The second is that this video is one of many that are from the perspective of the bacteria inside the glass bottle. And from that perspective, everything's fine right up to the point that it's not - and then it's way too late. That last doubling of population - that last increment of "that's the way we've always done it" is fabulous - until we hit the windshield.

Here's hoping we're smart enough to turn before the herd runs off the cliff.

Besides - reclaiming some of our self sufficiency does not mean we're magically transported back to 1469! Our parents/grandparents could grow their own food, make their own butter, and pump their own water before oil. Should we settle for being less intelligent or less capable than they were?
 
mitch672 said:
...There are some energy solutions in the works, but you don't hear much about them, H3 for example, most countries have plans to "mine the moon" for H3, and finally get fusion reactors working, don't know if its going to happen, or happen in time, but it may be a partial solution to the energy needs of the world...
I've been reading the hype about fusion for fifty years, along with "flying cars" and the like. It is best described as "fusion power is only ten to twenty years away... and always will be". Among the claims of proponents: fusion won't produce radioactive waste like fission power. Nope, the intense radiation of the fusion reaction will make containment vessels and other process components radioactive.

A sustainable, well-controlled, fusion power process is a very hard problem. Perhaps it will be solved someday but don't expect to see fusion power plants anytime soon.
 
AndyH said:
Besides - reclaiming some of our self sufficiency does not mean we're magically transported back to 1469!
I agree, but you'd never know that listening to the "There's no tomorrow" video...

=Smidge=
 
AndyH said:
<snip>
Besides - reclaiming some of our self sufficiency does not mean we're magically transported back to 1469! Our parents/grandparents could grow their own food, make their own butter, and pump their own water before oil. Should we settle for being less intelligent or less capable than they were?
Nothing magic about it at all. In fact it's going to be down right ugly. When you carve out your compound, make sure you don't forget the razor wire and lots of ammunition.
 
TickTock said:
AndyH said:
<snip>
Besides - reclaiming some of our self sufficiency does not mean we're magically transported back to 1469! Our parents/grandparents could grow their own food, make their own butter, and pump their own water before oil. Should we settle for being less intelligent or less capable than they were?
Nothing magic about it at all. In fact it's going to be down right ugly. When you carve out your compound, make sure you don't forget the razor wire and lots of ammunition.
Some have chosen to see the world that way. I don't agree. A total break-down is one possibility but it's certainly not the only possibility, and I've not yet seen anything that suggests it's even highly probable.

Though it wouldn't be the first time some portions of humanity have struggled to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory...
 
Back
Top