Economy After Fossil Fuels
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Event recorded: Tuesday, December 13, 2016 11:00 AM PST Hosted by Post Carbon Institute All economic activity entails energy usage. As our energy sources change, our economy will likely evolve and adapt—perhaps in surprising ways. Join us for a conversation with Rob Dietz, former Executive Director of Center for Advancement of a Steady State Economy and author of Enough Is Enough: Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources and Joshua Farley, Fellow of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics and co-author (with Herman Daly) of the foundation textbook Ecological Economics: Principles and Applications. Joined by Richard Heinberg and hosted by Asher Miller of Post Carbon Institute, we will discuss what the future of our economy might look like in a 100% renewable energy future and explore such important questions as: *What are the implications for how human labor will be valued, and how jobs will change? *Can the economy (measured by GDP) continue to grow if energy consumption and use of resources declines significantly? *Is growth of GDP essential to a functioning economy and to human well being? *Can capitalism survive in the era of climate change and energy transition? What would work better? A transcript of the chat window can be read here: : https://goo.gl/QqYpoZ
Comments
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the Transition currently includes peaceful citizens getting tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets. Hope you talk about how the US Military Industrial Complex will Transition, given the budget allotted by Congress for seizing and protecting oil infrastructure by force at home and abroad
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What's life like when you are locked in an air-tight room, and slowly the oxygen in the room runs out.
Well, that's what life is going to be like when we find our fossil fuels running out, it will be exactly the same.
The only hope we really have is the Thorium fueled nuclear reactors that China is working on right now. Without Thorium reactors we don't have a future. With Thorium reactors we will have all of the energy we need, equivalent to having a world full of oil at an EROI of 50:1 . That's not bad, not bad at all. With nuclear power that plentiful we will be able to synthesize liquid fuels such as ethanol literally from the CO2 in the air itself. http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-just-accidentally-discovered-a-process-that-turns-co2-directly-into-ethanol -
As mentioned the book with the analysis by the Post Carbon Institute is available free at ourrenewablefuture.org
Here's the description:
In Our Renewable Future, energy expert Richard Heinberg and scientist David Fridley explore the challenges and opportunities presented by the shift to renewable energy. Beginning with a comprehensive overview of our current energy system, the authors survey issues of energy supply and demand in key sectors of the economy, including electricity generation, transportation, buildings, and manufacturing. In their detailed review of each sector, the authors examine the most crucial challenges we face, from intermittency in fuel sources to energy storage and grid redesign. The book concludes with a discussion of energy and equity and a summary of key lessons and steps forward at the individual, community, and national level.
The transition to clean energy will not be a simple matter of replacing coal with wind power or oil with solar; it will require us to adapt our energy usage as dramatically as we adapt our energy sources. Our Renewable Future is a clear-eyed and urgent guide to this transformation that will be a crucial resource for policymakers and energy activists.
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