Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Most of the world’s 20 leading economies, including Brazil, Mexico and Argentina, are choosing to support fossil fuels over clean energy as part of their coronavirus economic recovery packages, although China is outspending on renewables by a ratio of 4 to 1, according to data collected by Energy Policy Tracker.
Perhaps the biggest challenge is that we may have to actually change our superstructures — our values, beliefs, and expectations for the future—and our socio-political and economic structures first in order to have an infrastructure that supports a functioning and sustainable community.
Anyway, this is all vaguely relevant to my present theme, which is some thoughts on Vaclav Smil’s Energy and Civilization: A History (MIT Press, 2017). It’s hard to keep up with Smil’s output, since he seems to produce about three books every year, but I find him an interesting writer.
The challenge is greater than preparing individuals and groups to fight back.
The Energy Cliff is a key concept in ecological economics. Should we understand this Cliff as both a mathematical ratio and a historical reality?
David Fridley and Richard Heinberg present on our energy future.
The 20th century fossil-fueled economic growth spurt happened not because the energy industry created many jobs, but because it created very few jobs.
Wage inequality is really a sign of a deeper problem; basically it reflects an economic system that is not growing rapidly enough to satisfy everyone.
Africa has within its reach a future that creates a homegrown, robust, clean energy economy that keeps jobs and money on the continent.
During the Paris climate talks, one leading scientist says the fundamentals of the whole process is "wildly optimistic". It starts with climate models that assume too much, spills into unreal scientific advice, and ends with rosy media reports saying we can keep on growing without wrecking the climate.
As a child of the 1950s I grew up immersed in a near-universal expectation of progress.
In short, we need fossil fuels to go away, but in a measured and predictable way.
