A sober perspective of the ecological crisis

In Bound to Burn, an article copied here, Peter Huber lays out a realistic perspective of the challenge of redirecting our energy consumption patterns.  It is very sobering.  He outlines the seemingly intractable and growing demand for carbon based fuels, comparing them with an insignificant impact of alternative fuels, concluding that carbon sequestration is the only realistic solution to our energy problems.

Unfortunately, his conclusion is as limited as our ability to sequester carbon and the likely benevelonce it will have on the disruption of ecological cycles.

It is worth reading simply to expand your perspective on how large the problem of fossil fuels is.

Our contention, however, is that the solution lies in system change and alternative fuels.  The time frame is rapid, but no more drastic than the speed at which fossil fuel use has grown in the past century.  System change is required because we must live within the laws of nature – increasing energy consumption with 100% carbon sequestration does not satisfy that need.  Alternative fuels and technologies are available to satisfy a high value lifestyle, but not an energy intensive one, even today.  Halving the global population by reducing births through education and incentive can be achieved in a generation and will have the greatest beneficial effect on humanity’s footprint.  These solutions may seem unpalatable but can be attractive and are increasingly necessary if we are to preserve a habitat for humanity.

Extract from Bound To Burn

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We rich people can’t stop the world’s 5 billion poor people from burning the couple of trillion tons of cheap carbon that they have within easy reach. We can’t even make any durable dent in global emissions — because emissions from the developing world are growing too fast, because the other 80 percent of humanity desperately needs cheap energy, and because we and they are now part of the same global economy. What we can do, if we’re foolish enough, is let carbon worries send our jobs and industries to their shores, making them grow even faster, and their carbon emissions faster still.

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