Comments on: What’s Your Energy Ideology?

By: Steve Byers

Steve Byers — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:59:34 +0000

Hi Allison,
Hi Allison,
Prescient as always. One thing missing from the comments above and the reason that some end up really believing in #6 (not sayin' where I am), is not the math of the energy equation, it's the reaction of people to unpleasant math.

Prediction is difficult, but not being prepared is really nasty. What seems most sure to me is that business as usual, whether it's energy, food production, climate change (pick your poison), is unlikely to work out well for us.

A staffer brought in some old papers today, I was flipping through one on John Glenn's flight, circa 1962 - Soviets hold lead in nuclear weapons research and the U.S. debt limit raised to $300 Billion jumped out at me!

Take care everyone!

By: Andrew Ramponi

Andrew Ramponi — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:31:00 +0000
Excellent post, and blog.
Excellent post, and blog. Thanks also for the reference to Do the Math.
There's more than enough evidence that we are very often wrong (see Kathryn Shultz Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error) and irrational (Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman) to suggest we need to be wary of all predictions, whether by expert advisors, ourselves, or anyone else. Sadly, formal education hasn't helped much. Again and again smart educated people do extremely stupid things. I find keeping things simple helps. Complex problems will likely not be solved by the complex thinking that created them...

By: Gary Kahanak

Gary Kahanak — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:42:22 +0000

Thanks for bringing up this
Thanks for bringing up this incredibly important topic, Allison. If we don’t get this one right, nothing else really matters.

The most recent book by Mark Lynas, “The God Species—Saving the Planet in the Age of Humans,” http://shop.nationalgeographic.com/ngs/product/books/animals-and-nature/nature-and-environment/the-god-species explores the limits to growth in a science-based, quantifiable manner, using the latest understandings of earth sciences. A group of 29 world experts from various disciplines boiled it down to nine limit points, which they called planetary boundaries. They were able to set quantified limits on seven of the boundaries; we are over the limit on three; climate change, biodiversity loss, and nitrogen pollution. The concept is that growth can continue sustainably as long as we manage to stay within all nine boundaries; otherwise, the biosphere destabilizes. If we have metrics for measurable limits, that will help us to shape our policies and monitor our progress. By the way, the other six boundaries are: land use, freshwater, toxics, aerosols, ocean acidification, and the ozone layer.

On the energy side, it’s clear to me that nuclear power, specifically advanced fast neutron reactors with a closed fuel cycle, is the only way we can get our world to a near-zero carbon energy economy by 2050. The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) is the technology of choice, and it has already been fully developed; it just awaits commercialization. See http://bravenewclimate.com/2012/01/05/plentiful-energy-ifr-book/#more-5440 for the just released book about the IFR by the two senior scientists who oversaw the IFR research. The book is titled, “Plentiful Energy—The Story of the Integral Fast Reactor.”

If we have plentiful, non-fossil fuel energy and adequate knowledge of the workings and limits of the biosphere, then at least theoretically we will have to tools to do the right thing.

By: John Poole

John Poole — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:03:41 +0000
Here's one more aspect of my
Here's one more aspect of my ideology I'd meant to include:

I believe that the era of fossil fuels is what finally propelled us to our current level of technological and economic development. When combined with the last few hundred years' worth of cumulative technological advances, fossil fuels made everything finally take off (so to speak). But that is precisely why it's so difficult to wean ourselves away from them.

The fossil fuel era is kind of like a ladder that got us on top of a roof: Now that we're on the roof, we now need to figure out how to toss the ladder away and get by without. It will take know-how and courage, but it has to be done.

By: John Poole

John Poole — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:49:15 +0000
My energy ideology is that
My energy ideology is that Santa Bailes and his elves will go around making every one's home more energy efficient, and all in just one night!

No, seriously: I think both extreme conservation and aggressive pursuit of renewables is necessary, to as to wean ourselves off fossil fuels as quickly as possible.

We also need to figure out how to manage endless population growth (and, no, I have no easy answer for that one), because any conservation efforts we make will always be outdone by an ever increasing population of energy consumers.

I also believe that any successful efforts along these lines will have to be promoted by smart people working at the grass roots level and realized via competition in the market place for cost savings based on energy efficiency, because other wise, we totally lack the political will to get this job done (case in point: the recent de-clawing of the EISA by congress).

So in a nutshell, that's my ideology.

By: Kerry Mitchell

Kerry Mitchell — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:24:14 +0000
My ideology is the formula
My ideology is the formula education to the masses and the results that can be recognized. . We are beginning finally to understand that education within the corporate and government cultures must take place for energy awareness and market transformation. We teach employees on line, globally on the issues at hand. Change cannot take place unless employees on all levels have education on what earth systems are and how they work. This must take more of a bottom-up approach and not top down. We must remember employees in every government and company are also consumers and are already considering and making lifestyle changes for family life. Their children are educating them on this level. We are already seeing a shift in a creating awareness from the employers mindset as sustainability, environmental directors and energy officers are becoming part of the organizational charts, globally. But it is with education for compliance for their employees where buy-in will be provide transparency and be able to be measured. Management must create a community of care and as stakeholders begin to demand this, and they are, but it is within the employee pool where change must take place. They must be trained because they are the ones to implement procedure and must be able to understand why this is coming about now. Without adding compliance education on the importance of recycling, sustainability planning, managing waste, environmental accounting and conserving the organizations resources, benchmarks cannot be truly recognized. Without education, we are just like a dog running in circles, grabbing at its own tail. We must train on why all life systems must work together. Charles Wolforth explains this in a way that is a bottom line approach. We must then educate to bring it to fruition.He is the author of The Fate of Nature has spoken all over the United States and overseas. He refers to the self-absorbed attitude humans have had to date as a “tragedy of the commons.” This is living life for a self-oriented existence. Connecting survival not for just ourselves but include each living system as intricate parts of our own existence is what needs to happen to connect our will to protect all life. Wolforth says we need to become more “we” oriented as other cultures. Link our lifestyles to estuaries and the eco-systems of all life. It makes sense that if we link all living systems and people together as stakeholders, preservation and health would prevail. This cannot happen and we all fight an uphill battle until education in the adult sectors takes place on a massive scale. Once this happens, products and services can be purchased, a stronger respect for our planet will be evident, energy efficiency and renewable energy can be appreciated, economic indicators will show positive results and this all scales.

By: Mike Legge

Mike Legge — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:28:47 +0000
As always, a great blog. The
As always, a great blog. The book by Christian De Duve,a Nobel Laureate in biology has written a book that may explain in an evolutionary way how we appear to be incapable of planning more than our immediate future.It is called "The Genetics of Original Sin". Again, thank you for such a succinct summary.

By: Michael Anschel

Michael Anschel — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:00:27 +0000
There is a wonderful book
There is a wonderful book called "The life and death of planet earth." The essence of which is to demonstrate from both a biological and geological perspective why the existence of humans on the planet is largely inconsequential to its future.

At the risk of getting philosophical here....energy is hardly in short supply, nor will it ever be. We are a primitive type I society still, and our ability to harness any quantity of energy is still quite poor.

What is at issue is the energy market and the influence it will have on politics, national security, and societal stability globally. The harsh reality is that long before energy becomes a destabilizing factor water will have changed everything. (Yes, energy will play a role in water access.)

In my humble opinion, and much to the chagrin of almost all of my environmentalist friends, I don't believe that any solutions lie within the energy conservation movement. I would rather see us focus on an increase in access to inexpensive energy that has a significantly reduced impact on the environment.

We need only look at technology to see that the amazing improvements we have made in the energy arena have no connection to conservation, but rather to an increased consumption, portability, reliability, and cost.

$.02

Michael

By: Dennis Cheslik

Dennis Cheslik — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:54:02 +0000
Allison,

Allison,

Your posts are excellent and this one is no exception. From my perspective: we need to ask our selves how can the world provide enough energy for 9 billion people around the year 2050 when we already have an energy crisis to provide for the 7 billion today.

By: Lucas Durand

Lucas Durand — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 01:06:53 +0000
P.S.

P.S.

Sorry about the formatting in my post. I didn't realize the spacing would turn out like that.

Cheers.