I think this is the beginnings of an economy based on perpetual growth and fossil fuel energy running headlong into geological energy constraints. Basically I see an undulatory downward path for the rest of my life. From here out, I think any rallies in our economic condition are going to be met with spiking commodity prices that knock us right back down.
Joined: Mar 04, 2005 Posts: 2730 Location: New Zealand
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:54 pm Post subject: Beyond Technology
Beyond Technology
Quote:
Plug-in hybrids, carbon-fiber composites, hydrogen fuel cells—a wide range of innovative technologies may make our future vehicles more efficient and less reliant on oil. But as David Greene of the National Transportation Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory* explains in this interview, technology alone will not solve the looming crisis we face with our petroleum-powered fleet. We also need smart government policies.
Q: So how do we begin to make the changes we need in our transportation system?
Greene: Most likely, we want to focus first on the fuel economy of the vehicle itself, as we have in the past. After the first oil crisis in 1973-74, we made enormous progress in improving the efficiency of vehicles, almost doubling the fuel economy of passenger cars.
Over the next 10 or 12 years, we can increase new vehicle efficiency by another 50 percent without having to make smaller vehicles, just by making more efficient engines, more efficient transmissions, slipperier shapes, reduced rolling resistance, and taking some weight out of cars with material substitution.
The road ahead
Q: How hard will it be to really solve the big problems looming ahead with our current transportation system?
Greene: To really solve this problem of climate change, to solve the problem of sustainable energy for transportation, will require technology we don't have. So in a way, we are on an unsustainable path with our foot on the accelerator. And we're counting on technology to solve the problem. You know, this is not prudent behavior. [laughs]
While we do not yet have the technologies we need to solve those problems, it really only makes sense to use the technology we do have. What is most irresponsible is that we are not requiring fuel-economy improvements, that we are not making more use of renewable energy. We need to do what we can now, one, to reduce the size of the problem we're going to have to solve in the future, and also to help generate the technological change we're going to need.
Q: But technology alone won't be the answer.
Greene: The problems we're trying to address are public problems. They're societal problems. And we will need societal action to address those. Just developing the technology alone won't be good enough. It takes collective action. It takes government action.
pbs _________________ Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. H. G. Wells.
Fatih Birol's motto: leave oil before it leaves us.
Joined: May 07, 2007 Posts: 434 Location: Adelaide, South Australia
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:32 pm Post subject: Re: Beyond Technology
What2DO wrote:
YA YA YA YA the technology is'nt there blah blah blah what bullshit we have the technology. The problem is'nt in the technology it's in the GREED.
Exactly. Money Money Money. If it's not gonna make money, it ain't gonna happen. _________________ "That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top, well I say, <censored by peakoil.com> floats"
Joined: Aug 14, 2007 Posts: 259 Location: Montreal Canada
Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:29 pm Post subject: Re: Beyond Technology
What2DO wrote:
cipi604 wrote:
What2DO wrote:
YA YA YA YA the technology is'nt there blah blah blah what bullshit we have the technology. The problem is'nt in the technology it's in the GREED.
Yup, you could eat only bananas! and never buy stuff, but you are greedy, aren't you?!
Come back when you know what Im talking about.
If you live a fully technological life, if you eat a lot of food from far away, if you buy clothes from far away, if you buy stuff from from far away... you're as guilty as the others. You have the GREED too.
Now, you come back when you know what Im talking about.
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 12:47 am Post subject: Re: Beyond Technology
cipi604 wrote:
What2DO wrote:
cipi604 wrote:
What2DO wrote:
YA YA YA YA the technology is'nt there blah blah blah what bullshit we have the technology. The problem is'nt in the technology it's in the GREED.
Yup, you could eat only bananas! and never buy stuff, but you are greedy, aren't you?!
Come back when you know what Im talking about.
If you live a fully technological life, if you eat a lot of food from far away, if you buy clothes from far away, if you buy stuff from from far away... you're as guilty as the others. You have the GREED too.
Now, you come back when you know what Im talking about.
OMG you got me there lol , like I said come back when you know what Im talking about
Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 10:48 am Post subject: Re: Beyond Technology
What2DO wrote:
cipi604 wrote:
What2DO wrote:
cipi604 wrote:
What2DO wrote:
YA YA YA YA the technology is'nt there blah blah blah what bullshit we have the technology. The problem is'nt in the technology it's in the GREED.
Yup, you could eat only bananas! and never buy stuff, but you are greedy, aren't you?!
Come back when you know what Im talking about.
If you live a fully technological life, if you eat a lot of food from far away, if you buy clothes from far away, if you buy stuff from from far away... you're as guilty as the others. You have the GREED too.
Now, you come back when you know what Im talking about.
OMG you got me there lol , like I said come back when you know what Im talking about
Joined: Jul 12, 2006 Posts: 88 Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Posted: Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:48 pm Post subject: Re: Beyond Technology
aflurry wrote:
what are you guys talking about?
It looks like they might be talking about some elephants preferring to fly on their backs - it's just more comfortable that way.
On the other hand, one of them might possibly be referring to the issue of technological solutions versus powerdown. Both of them might be considering the unsustainability of the Industrialised World's way of life, and perhaps the idea that seeking to continue that unsustainable way of life through technology could prove to be a fool's errand.
Of course, it could also be that neither knows what either one is talking about, or that they are not talking about anything at all other than what they had for dinner last night.
I think that the elephant explanation could be most likely in this case.
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