[at-l] musings on wind farms, the Trail, mankind and such

[jbullar1 at twcny.rr.com (Jim Bullard)]

At 11:13 PM 7/13/2004 -0400, Walt wrote:
>The current issue of Physics Today
>http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-57/iss-7/p47.html has an article on long
>term energy sources.

Interesting article Walt. I note that it assumes continued growth in 
population and energy consumption, a mindset that has been called "the 
engineering mentality". Basically this thinking attacks the consumption 
growth vs limited availability as a problem to be solved through increasing 
resource availability rather than limiting growth.

In a CBC program on March 25th, Dr. David Suzuki confronted the assumption 
that technology can solve our problems and allow endless growth. He 
compared our situation to a test tube of food in which there were organisms 
that doubled in number every minute. There is enough food in the tube to 
last 60 minutes. At around the 59th minute a brighter than average organism 
figures out that they are running out of food and figures out how to double 
the food supply thus generating 2 more tubes of food by the 60th minute. 
But they haven't gained 120 minutes. Due to the exponential nature of their 
growth they have gained only 1? minutes. According to Dr. Suzuki (a 
biologist) all the biologists he knows agree that we are already past the 
equivalent of the 59th minute on the human scale.

Toward the end, the article above states:
>     *  Education. The educational system has become focused on how to 
> manage, produce, distribute, and enjoy the objects, services, and 
> pleasures that plentiful energy makes possible. That system has grown 
> into ever more disciplines and subdisciplines that serve ever more 
> specialized skills. Dedication to basic science?that is, to the laws of 
> nature that allow, control, and constrain all abilities and potentials?is 
> no longer emphasized. Basic science remains limited largely to recitation 
> of formalisms that are gladly forgotten after examination time because 
> little effort is made to relate their basic and universal relevance to 
> specialties, the totality of life, and society.
>
>More than ever since the beginning of the energy revolution, knowledge of 
>the basic nature and limits of energy is needed to realistically determine 
>and carry out effective policy designed to guarantee reliable energies in 
>the future. That could well help ensure the survival of civilization. As 
>H. G. Wells once remarked, "Human history more and more becomes a race 
>between education and catastrophe."

Despite this bow to basic science and the limits of resources the author 
goes on to suggest that the solution to the demands of continued growth is 
through solar power, nuclear power and cooperative sharing of the remaining 
resources. It does not seem to occur to him that perhaps we are at a point 
where we should be considering ways to limit our growth rather than wait 
until a crisis forces it upon us.