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.
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.
“One Cubic Foot”
From National Geographic:
How much life could you find in one cubic foot? That’s a hunk of ecosystem small enough to fit in your lap. To answer the question, photographer David Liittschwager took a green metal frame, a 12-inch cube, to disparate environments—land and water, tropical and temperate. At each locale he set down the cube and started watching, counting, and photographing with the help of his assistant and many biologists. The goal: to represent the creatures that lived in or moved through that space.
I’d use a phone like this. In fact, it makes me excited for the day my Blackberry dies and I can just go back to having a regular old phone.
This phone concept is getting us closer to what Saul Griffith calls “heirloom design.” When you think about the entire energy cost of phones, it’s the manufacturing process that’s the most harmful aspect by far. So reducing the number of phones we make is way more important than, for example, marginally increasing the percentage of post-consumer recycled content in each phone.
For that reason, James Barber set out to make a phone that would last for five years. He also included modular components so that the camera, for example, can be swapped out as camera technology progresses. It’s easy to disassemble—there’s one jumbo-sized screw holding it together—and the whole thing is 85-percent recyclable.
Great idea!
I can’t fathom a better way to reduce waste created by plastic bags and other packaging than by eschewing the stuff altogether, which is precisely what London’s Unpackagedgrocery shop does.Beginning life as a market stall in 2006, Unpackaged is a unique and brilliant concept that is so simple it hurts, especially considering the sheer amount of packaging waste that is ridiculously filling our planet’s landfill sites. Within the beautifully designed shop, organic whole foods, dried fruit, nuts and seeds, herbs and spices, even refillable oils, vinegars and wines are all available to place straight into your own containers, that you will have brought along with you … if you haven’t then reusable bags are available.
From a WIRED gallery of ice seen from space:
The Sea of Okhotsk sits between Siberia and the Kamchatka Peninsula in far eastern Russia. In the winter, it becomes largely covered by ice. In the image above, captured by the MODIS instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite in February 2007, cold winds from Siberia combine with moist ocean air to form the cloud streets streaming away from the ice.
Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/gallery-ice/3/#ixzz0d4m4UvgJ
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.”
Exhibition of radical proposals to make the world work for everyone. →
n 1938, the visionary designer R. Buckminster Fuller wrote Nine Chains to the Moon,his radical proposal for improving the quality of life for all humankind via progressive design and maximizationof the world’s finite resources. The title was a metaphor for cooperation – if all of humankind stood on each other’s shoulders we could complete nine chains to the moon. Today, the population of the planet has increased more than three times to 6.7 billion (we could now complete 29 chains to the moon), and the successful distribution of energy, food, and shelter to over 9 billion humans by 2050 requires some fantastic schemes. Like Fuller’s revelation from five decades earlier, 29 Chains to the Moon features artists who put forth radical proposals, from seasteads and tree habitats to gift-based cultures, to make the world work for everyone.
So far, we have failed in designing a real alternative to the car. Compare the bus and the car as experiences: there is a clear winner and loser. Why does my minivan have 17 cup holders - but my bus has none? Why is my bus shelter not heated, but I can start my car remotely and let it warm up? Why is my bus uncomfortable and noisy when I can listen to Beethoven in my car? My bus is a design failure. It’s a stick painted green, and out of desperation or inspiration I’m supposed to want the experience. In Toronto, the slogan of the transit company is ‘the better way’. Well, it’s not, and everyone knows it. Until the bus experience is more attractive and effective than the car, we will always be selling a losing proposition.
Climate Messages from the Future
from GOOD:
These incredible posters are hanging in and around the Copenhagen airport, offering a pointed (and poignant) welcome message to the international representatives arriving for COP15. They’re the work of Toby Cotton of Arc Communications, and it looks like they were commissioned by Greenpeace and TckTckTck. Let’s hope the right people see them.
Pollution is nothing but the resources we are not harvesting. We allow them to disperse because we’ve been ignorant of their value.
— Buckminster Fuller
