Indelible moments and sensations dot our lives like mental sequins. And if you look up to the sky, the carbon atoms used in those moments are still there, each one knocking around with two oxygen buddies, trapping just a little bit of solar heat, forever unavailable in the fossil fuel form that society craves and loathes.
It is not an exaggeration to say that almost all our memories took carbon to make. Whoever invented the famous tag line for cotton growers just had the wrong raw material. Carbon: the fabric of our lives…
“We could be using half the energy that we’re using,” says political scientist and energy policy expert Mark Bernstein, managing director of the new USC Energy Institute. Launched earlier this year, the think tank aims to build a community of energy and environmental researchers, expand research and education programs, engage outside companies and agencies, and – perhaps most important – help form good policy.
This is a bumper-size article. Take the time for a read.
Some guy who heads a policy think tank, says we need better policy. Geophysical and industrial sciences are disengaged from the government decision making process – because nobody liked what they were saying.
The Salinity Problem is our next step as a species. Once, we thought is was such nuances as war, monetary systems, enslavement and high fructose corn syrup.
Idiots.
You can save a lot of energy by living in a culvert, never washing, walking every where you go, and eating all food as is when you get it.
Energy use per person during the stone age was actually pretty low.
Does this guy practice what he preaches or is he like Gore? A total hypocriten: a guy who doesn’t even know he’s completely two faced.
Ah – the measured conservative response of students of science.
# 6 moss said, “Ah – the measured conservative response of students of science.”
No, the response of someone what has designed power generation and distribution systems after reading garbage.
There is a thought going around…
That if we could capture the WASTE HEAT and lost energy we would be better off..
My idea goes like this..
THE LESS we use in power, the HIGHER the price goes. The Energy company wont make enough money to PAY the CEO, he will raise the PRICE of power.
I will also point out that the ELECTRIC COMPANY, will lease, rent, BORROW power, but they dont OWN much of the power generating facilities in the USA. THE USA GOV built most of it..YOU PAID from MOST OF IT.
The power companies are IN THE BUSINESS of selling AIR. Think about it. They BUY AND SELL a product without USING that product or HANDLING of the product until they SELL IT TO YOU.
“We could be using half the energy that we’re using”
WHAT?
And kill more innocent and defenseless whales?
http://bit.ly/i4m8
Over 200 Narwhal whales are facing certain death by starvation or suffocation due to mankind’s inability to create enough carbon to increase the earth’s temperature and save these marvelous creatures.
We need more Global Warming, not less!
#9, Damn you Al Gore!!!!
It is my personal mission in life to create the largest “carbon footprint” (a dubious concept, at best) that I possibly can.
As usual the wing nuts are out in force and showing how bright they are. For example, take #9 benson, and his 200 narwhals caught in the ice. What he, and other wing nuts, don’t understand is that because the Arctic Ice has melted in the first place, the narwhals are caught. Like most people, he doesn’t realize the difference in ice types and the significance of their age.
Normally the new ice would form from the old sea ice first. With no old ice, the new ice is forming from the land out. The narwhals were waiting for the sea ice to warn them it is time to go. By the time there was enough new sea ice for them to leave, it was too late. The land ice had already closed off the exits.
The stupid animals were fooled by global warming into thinking they still had time to react. Much like the stupid wing nuts. Except the narwhals have an excuse, no one told them.
# 9 jbenson2 said, “Over 200 Narwhal whales are facing certain death by starvation or suffocation”
Narwhal; It’s what’s for dinner… 🙂
I wonder if the USC “Think Tank” uses any energy? Ya think?
People are sooooooo gullible.
I thought snake oil was only for snakes.
This is the part of the equation you conservative numbskulls don’t seem to get. Here is the problem in a nut shell, and I hesitate to even write it because you won’t believe it and you will think me insane, but there is huge overwhelming scientific evidence to back it up:
The total amount of energy we are currently generating is very close to the maximum we can possibly generate (barring a miracle breakthrough in fusion).
The primary sources of power generation (oil, natural gas, coal, etc.) are on the decline or soon will be. The secondary renewable sources (nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal, etc.) can scale up in production, but not fast enough to make up for declines in the primary sources.
This energy plateau that we find ourselves on is at least partly to blame for the economic recession we are in. No power growth = no economic growth.
The easiest, cheapest, and most efficient means to get through the impending energy crises (yes plural), is to learn to use less of it.
# 16 ArianeB said, “The total amount of energy we are currently generating is very close to the maximum we can possibly generate”
LOL!
Ever heard of fission.
I wish eco nuts would hibernate during the winter.
global warming/climate change is nothing but
politicians & Gov. trying to make a buck..
if you dont cherry pick your dataset,
you’ll find the warming (and current
cooling periods) are due to solar cycle/sunspot activity..
i cant wait till they it us with a carbon tax for exhaling CO2. i’m saving up so i can can pay off the carbon police.
people are so naive, -it’s frightening.
-s
Good article. IMHO, the long term solution is to strive for an all electric society as quickly as possible. Transportation has been the biggest issue in getting there but for good reason. Fossil fuels have very high energy densities and transportable but now are outweighed by the climate impact and growing national security issues.
We finally have leadership coming with a plan to get to the all electric society! Out with the morons!! Once all electric, we can continue to leverage the multitude of energy source options to feed the the electric grid.
Great to see old school, filthy oil barons like T Boone’s Pickens coming around with a reasonable plan. Is he turning democrat? Anyway, HOPE is here!
#12 Oh Pedro, you either lack sensibility about these complex issues are you are deliberately being a moron. I’m not sure which is worse. 🙂
Here is a dose of common sense since you asked.. Much like spent uranium isn’t just buried in Harlem for safekeeping nor dirty oil poured down the drain pipe there is opportunity to recycle, salvage or use common sense disposal methods! YES! Imagine that!
Imagine for a moment, a used 200lb lithium car battery gets recycled, reprocessed or has a $500 refund! OMG! What a concept!! Why, by golly, imagine if the used soda bottle industry provided a nickel return fee! WOW!!
# 20 Dallas said, “Good article. IMHO, the long term solution is to strive for an all electric society as quickly as possible.
We finally have leadership coming with a plan to get to the all electric society!”
The 1st part is true.
The 2nd, no. Obama has no viable plan for handling energy. Wish he did, but he doesn’t.
A shame really.
#21–yea Pedro==why are you being so mindlessly negative? If you have any rationally based issues with lithium recycling, could you share them with us? Otherwise you are just “Pessimistic Pedro Perfidiously Pontificating”—which is not a good thing.
and Paddy, dumbshit as locked in. Yes, why hasn’t Obama presented his 8 year plan in detail for all issues? Why aren’t you happy that he hasn’t formally adopted the Bush Program of “Nothing But Oil?” When will you ever be embarassed? Is it possible?
#25 I don’t quite get how the ‘eighties greenees” point relates to my point. I’ll assume it’s a typical republican oldie but goodie tactic of bucketing of opinions for safe escape.
Your examples of Lithium being a scarce resource is valid but narrow minded to the greater objective to pursuing an all electric society. In fact common sense, yet again, enters this conversation and escapes your comprehension.
To help you think through this, any alternative energy solution proposed will be met by an equal number of negative counter reasons. If lithium were the only battery technology raw material available (it isn’t) you might have a point. Either way, you miss forest for the trees.
I revert back to T Boones Pickens who gets it. While he supports off shore drilling (as I), natural gas (as I) as a way to bridge away from foreign oil, today’s battery technologies similarly are bridges to the continuous innovation in producing, storing and safekeeping of electric power.
There is so much room ahead for innovation in alternative energy generation and storage other than fossil fuels. I can get why an oil person would resist. The only explanation I can see why the average Joe (punn intended) would resist is the innate nature of republicans to shun change. Pedro, it’s OK and Democrats will lead America away from the bad place. All you have to do it simple – don’t vote, stay home and watch TV for the next 20 years.
#23. Well, I believe he understands the energy problems as well as opportunities for America. I also believe he has a comprehensive energy plan and is surrounding himself with people to get the job done once president dip shit take his one way ticket back to Wacko, Texas.
Unfortunately, we also have piles of pathetic, narrow minded Americans with a chip on the shoulder of having a Democrat in office as if there was some sort of entitlement.
#16
> This energy plateau that we
> find ourselves on is at least
> partly to blame for the
> economic recession we are in.
That makes no sense. Isn’t oil at something like $50 a barrel? Clearly an oil shortage isn’t the issue otherwise, oil would be priced higher. An oil abundance would defy your reasoning that that an energy shortage is to blame for the recession.
This recession has nothing to do with energy shortages and has everything to do with dodgy investments, a lack of regulation in the credit markets and a change in political leadership creating uncertainty.
I read somewhere that for every $1 of investment in oil you get about $20 worth of energy. For all other energy sources, including electrical, you get about a $1 worth of energy for every $1 worth of investment. Until that ratio changes, petroleum is by far the most effective source of energy.
#25 – ‘dro
>>The eighties greenees would be ashamed of you
>>by praising the glories of nuke.
As technology and societies progress, ‘dro, so do the progressives. That’s why they’re called progressives instead of reactionary right-wing neoconservative fucktards. Not everyone has their head stuck as far up their ass as you do.
Now, go back to servicing Kuzco.
The SFM? The San Francisco Monster? The Spaghetti !@#%$ Monster? Is that like the FSM but turns people into fairies instead of pirates?
#28
Energy and the economy
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4770
As for the price of oil, I have learned to not look at the price of oil making any sense with rationality at all. Enjoy the cheap prices while they last… they won’t.
#30 – ‘dro
As we say here in the Estados Unidos, “si no tienes nada que decir, cállate la boca“.
Words to live by, m’hijito.
#34 Aye Pedro, m’hijito. Porque eres tan come mierda?
#34, peehead,
That makes no sense. Please, try again.