Ozzie Zehner |
In it he makes clear that we don't now, never have and never will face an energy crisis - as in 'too little energy'.
Rather we face the effects of excessive energy use and adding solar panels and windmills, alone, will only make it worse - by expanding the energy supply and thus, in effect, lowering the cost of all energy - all energy as in coal and oil.
So we can afford to use more and more and more - till the greenhouse gases kill us all.
Rather like improving gas mileage in the 1980s, only to discover we let ourselves spent just as much as ever on gas per year - but got to drive a lot more miles out of our improved ,energy-efficient, new cars !
So our real crisis is a consumption crisis - more particularly a urban planning-induced consumption crisis.
Until we de-urban-plan our cities, towns (and yes even villages) so they look as they did 200 years ago or more (in fact, back into the mists of time) we will be forced to use too much energy - by design.
Urban design.
But yesterday's biggest cities were small and walkable (& bike-friendly) and we needed far less energy to live.
Shops, work, school was much closer at hand. We rented our home and simply moved when we changed jobs - rather than just staying put and buying another car or a bigger car to deal with the change.
I can assure you that you will be hearing a lot about Ozzie's book - from both the bad guys (Cato Institute and ad nauseum) and from the good guys, sites like Desmogblog - over the next year or so....
I hope Ozzie's books can change
ReplyDeleteour consuming.