I’ve not particularly speculated on the Mad Max future of the Earth as we run out of fossil fuels.
We can assume that new technology will come on-line as the price of energy rises.
But recently I heard an audiocast of a lecture for the excellent CBC Ideas radio program. The speaker has the most believable, coherent vision I’ve heard as yet:
Mark Jaccard is a professor of environmental management at Simon Fraser University and an internationally acclaimed energy economist and consultant.
In this lecture he challenges the assumption that fossil fuels will be the death of us and posits that they may offer the most sustainable future for the planet.
It’s a LONG lecture.
If you don’t have time to listen to the whole thing, Jaccard concludes that the Earth has at least 200yrs of reasonably priced energy left. That’s counting only existing reserves and technologies.
No worries. Right?
Actually Jaccard feels humankind has plenty of potential to destroy our planet and environment. But that fossil fuels will not be the mechanism.
Donner Prize in writing Canadian Public Policy
Sustainable Fossil Fuels: The Unusual Suspect in the Quest for Clean and Enduring Energy
Rick McCharles 