As for abandoning hope, I especially like this quote from the aforementionned article:
In the end, it’s more important for me to know that we can trim energy use by a large factor while still engaging in important pursuits than it is that we all do reduce our energy right now. Of course, immediate widespread reduction would be my preference, being the most conservative approach to the possible energy precipice ahead. We could let off the gas and take stock of our future rather than barrel ahead under the assumption that our energy resources are guaranteed. Being wrong on the cornucopian gamble could be far more ruinous than easing off ahead of time.
First of all, a paper written in Word, with default Excel diagrams and with missing citations ("E r ror! Reference sou rce not found") doesn't inspire much confidence.
Then, from the paper itself
Life cycle analyses are subject to considerable uncertainty due to the massive amount of data required to obtain results. At each step, uncertainty in the data propagates through to the results. However, because the accuracy of the data is often unknown, it is impossible to calculate the exact degree of accuracy of the results.
I'm sure I could find other papers that come to different conclusions for plane vs car.
Then, your car is probalby full when going on holiday, so that the average occupancy of 1.58 is probably closer to 3 for a sedan, dividing by two the energy consumption by passenger-mile-traveled.
Then, you probably travel farther with a plane than with a sedan. Who cares if you got a better EnergyUsage/PMT when your PMT is 10 times higher?
Finally, talking about peak oil, your Boeing 737 stays on the ground when oil isn't as cheap and available as today. For cars, you can find alternatives even if they aren't as convenient as oil.
Sorry to disappoint you, but this paper isn't a free ticket to use planes and think it's all green and without consequences.
What can you do about global warming and peak oil, at least in the short term?
WTF, Insightful? Is it a rhetorical question, and are you really implying that we cannot do anything about global warming & peak oil in the short term?
On the top of my head, here are some stuff you could start *today* : * turn your air conditioning off, or choose an higher set temperature * eat less meat * buy local and seasonal food * take the bus, tram or bike to commute. If you have to take the car, bring a colleague with you * don't buy any gadget that you would stop using after a few days/weeks * don't plan to take the plane for your next holidays * generally try to use less energy that your neighbor * spread the word
The place where I buy most of my vegetables/cereals/fruits/meat : * produces locally * produces seasonally * only has organic food * has happy cows, pigs and chickens that you can actually see before eating * seems to have happy workers, mostly because of decent pay and job stability * has 15 cats to catch rodents * has 20 ducks to catch snails/slugs
Yes, it might be more expensive than the usual food at the supermarket, but it tastes 10x better and it just feels right for all of the above reasons. Don't get me started on double-blind tests about taste. Who the fuck cannot see or taste the difference between : * a tomato that feels like a water balloon, that you can eat all year long, that doesn't have any taste and that has been sprayed to death by illegal immigrants in Almeria * and a weirdly shaped red tomato, that you only eat during summer and is filled with 90% flesh?
Sooo, by integrating over each Windows iteration, supposedly x% faster than the previous, is Windows 8 1000% faster than Windows 3.1? Will Metro run on my Commodore PC 20-III?
So your arguments are : * I'm better than you * My security is more important than yours * I don't give a fuck about you * I deserve what I want * I have taste * I don't give a damn about peak-oil * It's okay to have an inefficient car, because I also have an inefficient motorbike
Exactly. The main problem is that there are so many models of iStuff and e-stuff that it's impossible to standardize the process of recovering valuable parts of it. Planned obsolescence is a bitch, and we're only beginning to understand what the related problems are.
Ooooohhh, shiny! The new Panasonic DMC-LX7 is out, with a new sensor and a 24mm f/1.4 lens? Let's ditch my shitty LX5! What was I saying?
Funny you mention desertec. I work as an engineer for a solar research center in Germany. We work a lot with the DLR (http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10010/), which is involved in the desertec project. I designed a few hundred MWp worth of solar installations around Europe.
So : I know what's available, what we need and what could be done with renewable energies. But there's a slight nuance you seem to be missing : desertec hopes to deliver 15% of Europe's electricity by 2050, provided they find a decent way to cool down the concentrated solar plant in the frigging desert. 15% isn't much, Europe is only a small part of the world, 2050 is pretty late compared to peak oil, electricity isn't the biggest part of our energy demand and there still are quite a lot of technological problems to even achieve this.
So yeah, keep dreaming about space travel, big cars, big houses, lot of meat and perpetual motion for 10 billion people.
"Post-scarcity society" ??? What a load of bullshit. Have you ever heard of peak-oil? Do you realise 80% of our energy demand is covered by fossil fuels? Have you heard of global warming?
I never really bothered to use CLI on windows. Where do you specify "scattered all over the drive" ? Doesn't that only match the mp3's that are directly at the root of C:\ ? I'd expect to see ** or -r, but maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe I didn't understand your complain, but I think you can navigate with dragging. I don't have OS X at work and cannot check. But you can drag to Favorites (or Places, not sure about the name) or to any of the parent folders at the bottom of your Finder window (http://www.themaclawyer.com/uploads/image/Finder%20-%20Wide%20Columns.png). I'm not sure if you have to change parameters in order to display the parent folders, though.
It's the only platform where I can run those apps natively : *) yakuake-like terminal + zsh + ssh + git + vim + ruby *) Lightroom & Photoshop *) Sketchup *) Counter-strike, Portal & Batman Arkham Asylum
Less importantly, I like to edit videos for my family with iMovie, and practice Guitar with GarageBand.
Slashdot Mirror
I suppose I'm somewhere in-between.
If you're really interested in knowing how much it's gonna save, take a look at :
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/05/my-neighbors-use-too-much-energy/
As for abandoning hope, I especially like this quote from the aforementionned article :
First of all, a paper written in Word, with default Excel diagrams and with missing citations ("E r ror! Reference sou rce not found") doesn't inspire much confidence.
Then, from the paper itself
I'm sure I could find other papers that come to different conclusions for plane vs car.
Then, your car is probalby full when going on holiday, so that the average occupancy of 1.58 is probably closer to 3 for a sedan, dividing by two the energy consumption by passenger-mile-traveled.
Then, you probably travel farther with a plane than with a sedan. Who cares if you got a better EnergyUsage/PMT when your PMT is 10 times higher?
Finally, talking about peak oil, your Boeing 737 stays on the ground when oil isn't as cheap and available as today. For cars, you can find alternatives even if they aren't as convenient as oil.
Sorry to disappoint you, but this paper isn't a free ticket to use planes and think it's all green and without consequences.
Then it's not seasonal, is it?
Come on, you got ~100% renewable electricity, hot girls and a nice reserve of gas. It isn't so bad to eat fish and potatoes all winter long!
WTF, Insightful?
Is it a rhetorical question, and are you really implying that we cannot do anything about global warming & peak oil in the short term?
On the top of my head, here are some stuff you could start *today* :
* turn your air conditioning off, or choose an higher set temperature
* eat less meat
* buy local and seasonal food
* take the bus, tram or bike to commute. If you have to take the car, bring a colleague with you
* don't buy any gadget that you would stop using after a few days/weeks
* don't plan to take the plane for your next holidays
* generally try to use less energy that your neighbor
* spread the word
There you go!
The place where I buy most of my vegetables/cereals/fruits/meat :
* produces locally
* produces seasonally
* only has organic food
* has happy cows, pigs and chickens that you can actually see before eating
* seems to have happy workers, mostly because of decent pay and job stability
* has 15 cats to catch rodents
* has 20 ducks to catch snails/slugs
Yes, it might be more expensive than the usual food at the supermarket, but it tastes 10x better and it just feels right for all of the above reasons.
Don't get me started on double-blind tests about taste.
Who the fuck cannot see or taste the difference between :
* a tomato that feels like a water balloon, that you can eat all year long, that doesn't have any taste and that has been sprayed to death by illegal immigrants in Almeria
* and a weirdly shaped red tomato, that you only eat during summer and is filled with 90% flesh?
Sooo, by integrating over each Windows iteration, supposedly x% faster than the previous, is Windows 8 1000% faster than Windows 3.1?
Will Metro run on my Commodore PC 20-III?
What about an oil barrel? :D
You'll need it in 2037!
Plus, you could sell it for a few thousand dollars and buy vintage stuff from 2012
You might want to look at the definition of "to need something".
You'll be surprised!
So yeah : "Nobody *needs* an SUV"
So your arguments are :
* I'm better than you
* My security is more important than yours
* I don't give a fuck about you
* I deserve what I want
* I have taste
* I don't give a damn about peak-oil
* It's okay to have an inefficient car, because I also have an inefficient motorbike
Thanks for the explanation!
I think you'll enjoy it :
http://bananenplanet.wordpress.com/2012/07/17/10-things-most-americans-dont-know-about-america/
Exactly.
The main problem is that there are so many models of iStuff and e-stuff that it's impossible to standardize the process of recovering valuable parts of it.
Planned obsolescence is a bitch, and we're only beginning to understand what the related problems are.
Ooooohhh, shiny! The new Panasonic DMC-LX7 is out, with a new sensor and a 24mm f/1.4 lens? Let's ditch my shitty LX5!
What was I saying?
It looks a lot like flare + chromatic aberration to me.
But if it has been seen & reported before, then it might be worth investigating it.
The whole civil aviation is doomed to plummet due to oil scarcity.
Soft tarmac will be the least of its problems.
Funny you mention desertec.
I work as an engineer for a solar research center in Germany.
We work a lot with the DLR (http://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/desktopdefault.aspx/tabid-10010/), which is involved in the desertec project.
I designed a few hundred MWp worth of solar installations around Europe.
So : I know what's available, what we need and what could be done with renewable energies.
But there's a slight nuance you seem to be missing :
desertec hopes to deliver 15% of Europe's electricity by 2050, provided they find a decent way to cool down the concentrated solar plant in the frigging desert.
15% isn't much, Europe is only a small part of the world, 2050 is pretty late compared to peak oil, electricity isn't the biggest part of our energy demand and there still are quite a lot of technological problems to even achieve this.
So yeah, keep dreaming about space travel, big cars, big houses, lot of meat and perpetual motion for 10 billion people.
*You* should think before you reply.
Your comment is so wrong on so many levels that I don't know where to begin.
Really, please take the time to read this blog post :
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/07/galactic-scale-energy/
Sorry to burst your bubble!
"Post-scarcity society" ???
What a load of bullshit.
Have you ever heard of peak-oil? Do you realise 80% of our energy demand is covered by fossil fuels? Have you heard of global warming?
Do yourself a favor, and go read this :
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/04/economist-meets-physicist/
Cool link, thanks!
I love this quote :
Ben Laurie has stated : Sudoku is "a denial of service attack on human intellect".
Who cares about the Higgs boson?
Sudoku is real science!
I never really bothered to use CLI on windows.
Where do you specify "scattered all over the drive" ? Doesn't that only match the mp3's that are directly at the root of C:\ ?
I'd expect to see ** or -r, but maybe I'm wrong.
Finder is a frigging PITA indeed.
Maybe I didn't understand your complain, but I think you can navigate with dragging.
I don't have OS X at work and cannot check. But you can drag to Favorites (or Places, not sure about the name) or to any of the parent folders at the bottom of your Finder window (http://www.themaclawyer.com/uploads/image/Finder%20-%20Wide%20Columns.png).
I'm not sure if you have to change parameters in order to display the parent folders, though.
It's the only platform where I can run those apps natively :
*) yakuake-like terminal + zsh + ssh + git + vim + ruby
*) Lightroom & Photoshop
*) Sketchup
*) Counter-strike, Portal & Batman Arkham Asylum
Less importantly, I like to edit videos for my family with iMovie, and practice Guitar with GarageBand.
It's also one of the only newspapers that I know that doesn't write kW/h in every single article about energy.
True.
That's why I insist on anal sex and facials when showing porn to my kids!
You could try to send this mail to Adobe and explain your situation.
You'll probably get some "student" discount.
The content is f*in great.
Thanks a lot to everyone involved!
PS : I want to punch someone in the face each time I see those __MACOSX folders in .zip files.