Education

A guide for the perplexed

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E.F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful, once required reading in the appropriate-tech movement, has lost none of its relevance in the thirty years or so since the period of its greatest popularity. Some of its core ideas may turn out to be essential in making sense of the murky economic territory on the far side of Hubbert’s peak.

The myth of efficiency

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What makes efficiency? Is it clever management? The “productivity” of human resources? Economies of scale? Centralization? Better information and computer systems? The competition of markets? Business people give credit to these innovations, and all of these changes may contribute incrementally to the cheapness of our food, but these are just icing on the cake. The real underpinning of what we think of as efficiency is cheap energy – especially cheap oil.

Commentary: The Great Divide on Energy Policy

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At the 2009 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston two weeks ago, the top issues revolved around policy questions more than technology, such as drilling the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and climate change legislation. I saw little in the way of progress, however.