The End of Fossil Energy and the Last Chance for Survival
we
are on a collision course with disaster. In the last four generations
(100 years), we have built a very tall house of cards and enjoyed a
party provided by plentiful, low-cost fossil fuel. We've developed
the technology to convert plentiful energy into an easy lifestyle.
This has been going on just long enough that few in the developed
nations remember what life was like bebore this luxury. It took
hundreds of millions of years for the earth to accumulate various forms
and small pockets of concentrated fuel. Now, we are using it as such
a prodigious rate that at least the liquid and gaseous components will
become scarce in the next decade. The age of stored fossil-fuel energy
will have lasted, in total only about 200 years. A similar
life-altering asteroid might impact the earth every few hundred million
years. Our man-made crisis is at our doorstep now. Rather than
denying this, leaving your survival to others, or just giving up, read
on. there still may be a last chance to achieve a sustainable
civilization. It is up to us as intelligent individuals acting in
concert to identify and follow that path. We are the problem. We are
the only hope for the solultion. Time is critical. Every moment
wasted means less chance for survival. In the last two years we may
have lost our best chance for a safe. landing.
For thousands of
generations our ancestors subsisted in a delicate, harsh balance with
the environment. Like all organisms our bodies have the ability to
produce at least enough energy to procure food (fuel) which, in turn,
provides our personal energy along with a little left over to fight
with competitors for resources or to procreate and survive lean times.
In good years, human population increased because the population of any
species reflects the abundance of the environment. As soon as the
resources dwindled, either because of resource depletion or climate
change, the population declined. This forced the population to remain
stable for tens of thousands of years.
Since the rapid
advance of technology in the last century which enabled us to utilize
previously stored highly concentrated energy, world population has
exploded at an exponential rate from one billion people to of34 six
billion.
The greater the growth or movement in one directions, the more severe will be
the ultimate correction. What goes up, must come down.
Less
intelligent species can be forgiven for not seeing or reacting to the
external forces which control puupulation and resource consumption.
Humans, on the other hand, are gifted with magnificent brainpower and
the ability to learn from the past and plan for the future. Yet, we
are blind if we don't use our extreme intelligence to anticipate and
hopefully cushion our impending collision with the coming energy and
closely related population crises.
there are many voices in the
wilderness warning of the impending crash, but for all practical
purposes nothing is happening. We are just shrinking the time frame
to our demise. Later in this book I discuss further the movement ofn
environmentalism. why we don't want to hear or act on these messages
is varied. One author, Peter Seidel, in his book, Invisible Walls 1, has
directly addressed this subject. time is rapidly running out. We will
soon lose any opportunity to act appropriately while we do nothing but
let short-term interests determine our path.
If we lose the advanced technology we are presently enjoying,
no future civilization wille ver again be able to achieve a similar
level of freedom from human laabor. The fossil fuels and their high
platueau of support of our lifestyle will be forever lost.
the
necessary downsizing of consumption will require many changes. these
need to be understood and made by all, not just a few. The only hope
for survival o our life raft is for leadership and peer pressure in
insure that everyone shares the commitment and a few don't rob the
provisions. Fortunately, much of the Industrialized World is ruled by
democracies with elected leaders who should answer to infomred
constituents and not to inanimate corporated structures concerned
primarily with short-term profits regardless of the impact on natural
resources.
In the 2004 critical election year, we in the US must support
candidates most concerned with the immediate impact of energy
on the survival of humankind.
Unfortunately
by 2005 when this book is being reprinted, the 2004 election is behind
us and neither party focused on the pending fossi-fuel crisis as a
fundamental issue. As usual, both candidates reflected an uninformed
constituancy that does not know of or is being mislead about energy
issues. The proposed energy bill does not focus on fossi-fuel
depletion. It only gives lip service to conservation and encourages us
to keep going as we are with even more intesive drilling until all is
gone. Then What?
