Whales to Wood, Wood to Coal/Oil- What’s Next?
Whales to Wood, Wood to Coal/Oil- What’s Next?
Earth’s systems revolutions….
Spend the time to watch the video lecture by Daniel Nocera at M.I.T.
In 1845, the Dietz Company of New York introduced the sperm oil lantern, which nearly wiped out some whale species. A decade or so later, Dietz began to manufacture lamps using other oils, and gas lighting fixtures, giving whales a reprieve. More than a century has passed, and we’re “about to do it again,” saysDaniel Nocera, consuming a precious resource and endangering this time not whales but our world. Nocera wonders, “What will be the savior,” the answer that will save the entire planet?
He ticks off the grim details of our fossil fuel habit — how the world is rapidly moving from its energy consumption of 12.8 terawatts per year, to 28 terawatts by 2050. This is a simple calculation, Nocera tells us, requiring only population, GDP per capita and energy intensity. The upshot, unfortunately, is that though we do have enough carbon-based energy (oil, methane, coal) to last all of us quite a while, the CO2 we’re emitting may choke off our current way of life long before the end of the fuel.
