Tomorrowland - from The Atlantic
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We are now at a point in time comparable to 1850, which marked the outset of the last great energy transition. Then, about 85% of the world’s total primary energy supply came from biomass fuels. In 2005, about 85% of the total supply originated from fossil fuels. By the late 1890s, when fossil fuel consumption rose to equal the biomass contributions, each of them supplied about 0.7 TW (Terawatts or 1012 watts); today, even if we were to replace only 50% of all fossil fuels by renewable energies during the coming decades, we would have to displace coal and hydrocarbons flows of about 6 TW. That is an enormous shift.
Today there is no readily available non-fossil energy source that is large enough to be exploited on the requisite scale. True, energy carried by solar radiation is several orders of magnitude larger than any conceivable global energy demand, but so far, practical conversions into electricity (using photovoltaics) or large-scale industrial heat are quite negligible. Also, other renewable energy flows could not cover today’s worldwide total primary energy supply, even if, economics aside, they were fully exploited by current techniques. And even nuclear power’s contribution is constrained by limited fissionable material.
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21st Century Energy: Some Sobering Thoughts
An impartial examination of some basic principles reveals five factors that will make the transition to a non-fossil world far more difficult than is commonly realised. These are: the scale of the shift; the lower energy density of the replacement fuels; the substantially lower power density of renewable energy extraction; intermittency of renewable flows; and uneven distribution of renewable energy resources.
Resetting the Doomsday Clock
This is the 19th time the Clock has been reset. The last time, in 2007, Pentagram recommended the group adopt the Clock as its symbol, and created standards for its use. In the three years since, the Bulletin community has grown considerably. This publication’s clear statement of purpose is a indication of the group’s maturity and confidence as it moves into its second 50 years, and an invitation to join the global effort to turn back the Clock.
WIRED: “In his endless quest to squeeze every possible mile from a gallon of gasoline, our friend Darin Cosgrove has given his econobox a homemade boat tail and boosted his fuel economy to 64 mpg.”
Juliet Lapidos on “How to communicate the dangers of nuclear waste to future civilizations.”
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Even if future trespassers could understand what keep and out mean when placed side by side, there’s no reason to assume they’d follow directions. In “Expert Judgment,” the panelists observe that “[m]useums and private collections abound with [keep out signs] removed from burial sites.” The tomb of the ancient Egyptian vizier Khentika (also known as Ikhekhi), for example, contains the inscription: “As for all men who shall enter this my tomb … impure … there will be judgment … an end shall be made for him. … I shall seize his neck like a bird. … I shall cast the fear of myself into him.” It’s possible that the vizier’s contemporaries took Khentika at his word. But 20th-century archaeologists with wildly different religious beliefs had no reason to take the neck-cracking threat seriously. Likewise, a scavenger on the Carlsbad site in the year 12,000 C.E. may dismiss the menace of radiation poisoning as mere superstition. (“So I’m supposed to think that if I dig here, invisible energy beams will kill me?”) Hence the crux of the problem: Not only must intruders understand the message that nuclear waste is near and dangerous; they must also believe it.
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Paul Raven on ‘peak uranium’
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…the most worrying problem is the misconception that uranium is plentiful. The world’s nuclear plants today eat through some 65,000 tons of uranium each year. Of this, the mining industry supplies about 40,000 tons. The rest comes from secondary sources such as civilian and military stockpiles, reprocessed fuel and re-enriched uranium. But without access to the military stocks, the civilian western uranium stocks will be exhausted by 2013…
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Energy Secretary Steven Chu visits Googleplex
(via Next Big Future) There is a 41 minute video of Steven Chu talking about clean energy (including nuclear fusion) at Google.
GOOD expounds on a good idea:
The algae industry is still five to 10 years from commercialization, but it has the potential to change our lives.
I use a Britta for drinking water. About a year ago, my girlfriend noticed a neon green film growing from the bottom of the Britta jug. “Damn algae,” I thought to myself. “It grows everywhere.” But that capacity to grow really, really quickly—and practically anywhere—could be the saving grace of humanity (or the cause of more ire)..
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