[LMB] "Civilization isn't just electricity."

[anmar mirza]

On 2/6/08, Stewart Dean <sdean7855 at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Well not culturally, but pretty much technologically.  Electricity means
> small compact rotary power...whence cometh (no quibbling, please)
> refrigeration, air conditioning, furnaces, power tools, vacuum cleaners,
> water pumps, washing machines and dryers, dishwashers, cars that can
> start themselves, etc, etc.  It also means pinpoint heat sources and
> smart tools/appliances/computers.  Consider the alternatives.


One of the SF books I lost in the fire that I cannot remember the
title of is based on just that premise, that all metals stopped conducting
electricity.  Leave aside the fact that it'd also mean that many chemical
processes would stop as well, the author explored just how people
would cope.  Diesel engines became popular.


Oh sure you can live without them, but they make life so /easy/ and
> productive.../and/ they empower and cost reduce the means of production.
> The thing I dread about peak oil and the loss of cheap energy is all of
> that getting priced out of usage.


Nonsense.  Energy is still cheap.  It may no longer be as
cheap, but compared to human or animal power, energy
costing ten times what it does now is still cheap.  We have
the opportunity to rework the infrastructure to utilize a lot
of the energy that flows by us every day, but the vested
interests have no real desire to switch until they have to.

We waste energy now because it is too cheap.  Anyone who
has ever produced their own energy knows just how much
you can change to reduce energy consumption without giving
up comfort.  My household uses a tenth of the amount of
electricity than a normal household because we generate it
ourselves.  I have an 18 year old Honda car that gets ~30mpg
and has an 86hp engine.  Modern ones of similar class
have 130hp engines, are 15% lighter and get 38mpg and
use less energy to produce.  Imagine the fuel ecoonomy
and weight savings if I could buy that same new car with
an 86hp modern engine!  50mpg easy.

Wind and solar energy are *not* prohibitively expensive.  There
are currently several places in the US where the installed cost
of photovoltaics is lower on the price intersection than fossil fuel
generated power.  We're talking a matter of a few percent, not
an order of magnitude in energy costs.

That cheap oil running out is a crisis is an ILLUSION created by
people who make their money by buying and selling this
commodity.  I personally won't cry if the futures market in petroleum
collapses and some wall street traders have to find something
else to suck the blood out of to make obscene amounts
of money.

Oh, and I've been running a tally.  If the US invested as much in
true renewable energy (wind and solar) as has spent in the
two wars (I will leave aside whether or not we should be
there for any political reasons) we are currently running,
we could provide 70% of US household electricity for free
to the consumer for the next 30 years.  If spending continues
as it does, in 2.5 years that number will reach 100%.

It's a matter nof priority.  Not so much cost.  It costs more
because we are behind the curve, not in front of it.

(sorry for this long rant, it's a topic close to home for me)






-- 
Anmar Mirza EMT, N9ISY, Central Region NCRC Coordinator, Owner Lost Creek
Packs, blog.myspace.com/anmarmirza)