Does Richard Heinberg Ever Sleep?
Sharon November 15th, 2009
So there’s his new coal book, which I haven’t even had a chance to finish my review of, and now Heinberg and Jerry Mander have put together an analysis the possibilities of *any* energy resource to meet needs to 2100?!?! The man writes books and major papers faster than I read them - and I have been accused of prolificacy m’self.
It is definitely worth a look, and different from all the other many things like this in two respects. First, it emphasizes the impact of net energy, which is an extremely important concept - the energy density and net return of our resources is not something even folks who do this stuff always pay full attention to. The second thing worth looking at is that they actually sit down with all the major options, renewable and not, and ask the question - how do we go on from here.
It has a typical Heinberg (I like Jerry Mander a lot too, but the language and careful balancing are very much Heinberg) delivery - a little on the dry side, but extraordinarily clear and comprehensible - and it is worth looking at for the compiled info on EROEI and on the possible costs of retrofit.
Here’s the Energy Bulletin link, but do read the whole thing - it’ll be worth it, not because the information is new - anyone who thinks hard about it knows that the energy bodied in a Toyota is “too damn much to keep up” - but because it offers another way of seeing the nails going into the coffin.
Sharon