Dear ST list folks: In CNET.com, staff writer Michael Kanellos reports the findings of an assessment of projected energy needs and, for every known renewable option, what sort of ramp-up it would take to back off our lead-footed rush toward carbon death of the planet<http://www.news.com/8301-11128_3-9928068-54.html?tag=nl.e703>. The bottom line is we are not only nowhere near a course toward reduced emissions, there is not money or will enough in all the planet to build capacity to harness the needed energy renewably. Kanellos confesses to a to an appetite for reporting doomsday sightings but sees no way this picture is anything but realistic. One quick use you may have for the article are the numbers [they are staggering] that measure what scale an adequate building program would require to meet projected needs through renwables.
The basic notion of "use less, use carefully" that many on this list espouse in some form is a position that we may have come to as an ethical response to what we have learned about the long term impact and sustainability of our personal consumption. What seems clear to me in light of the reported assessment by SRI international researchers is that the rest of the planet will not have the psychological luxury or comfort of reaching this position on consumption via responsible reflection...they and all of us are going to have the decision to use less taken away from them. We simply will have less to use and it is that eventuality that we should be personally preparing for. If the scale of the projected renewable energy shortfall is indicative of shortages in other basics [and our present grain shortages indicate how strongly fuel-lust in rich countries is linked to food planet wide] then we are not talking about having a little less, we are talking about dire deprivation beyond the worst we now experience in any country with haves and have-nots thrown in to unavoidable conflict. As a society in the grip of a world view fostered by investments vast and cold in the profits of the energy status quo, appropriate responses in government, finance, technology or personal habits simply won't come fast enough, and are already too late to be of much help. The one "bright spot" cited, i.e. at least we do *have* enough coal to meet demand, is to me a demented response that ignores a climate already in the early stages of collapse under its thickening blanket of CO2. In fact, the clear implication of the report is that the chances of leveling off or reducing CO2 emissions to Kyoto levels or to those prescribed in Hansen's proposals is nil. If someone can point me to well supported findings or persuasively argued papers that counter my impression that the whole world's population and its economies are basically on rails towards collapse and without brakes, please do so. Happy dearth day :( [earth day is one day a year, all the rest are....] -George -- freedom is not more important than fairness and much easier to fake. _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
