Surprising.
But obvious, once you see the history laid out by Richard Sears from MIT.
Click PLAY or watch it on TED.
UPDATE: Check the comment from Peter.
Surprising.
But obvious, once you see the history laid out by Richard Sears from MIT.
Click PLAY or watch it on TED.
UPDATE: Check the comment from Peter.
Rick McCharles 
Hi,
Well, this is interesting but Richard Sears was employed by Shell Oil for 33 years before going to MIT as a “visiting” scientist. Shell is also putting $4 million into research at MIT as part of this “reciprocal” arrangement.
Here are a couple of things to think about in terms of Sears’ talk. Ideas do *not* always run ahead of the need for technological change, especially in closed systems (which the earth is). The people of Easter Island likely deforested the island and the culture there collapsed to the point that people were likely, literally, eating their “renewable” resources (e.g. egg laying chickens). Other relatively “closed” civilizations have likely suffered similar fates.
Perhaps Sears is right about his “Share of Primary Energy” graph but it is definitely not in sync with information found at http://timeforchange.org/prediction-of-energy-consumption. The world currently gets about 80% of its energy from fossil fuels (primarily coal, oil, and natural gas). By 2030 its estimated that about 90% of energy consumption will be from fossil fuels. It looks like coal production will double in that time and natural gas will triple. On the other hand renewables are predicted to account for about 7% of energy used.
We would have to come up with some whoppers in terms of renewable resources to put a dent into the fossil fuel use. It seems apparent that our “thirst” for energy will be slaked by increased coal and natural gas production and *not* by renewable resources.
Very interesting, Peter.
Richard Sears, something of a shill for Shell?
I’ve got a friend who works for Shell. I’ll email him to ask his opinion on this speech.