[Dialogue] ENERGY DEPLETION

Tue Jan 30 09:42:11 EST 2007

The discussion of energy depletion has been fascinating me since the 
days of grad school.  During my interview with technical managers at 
Shell Oil in Houston, I mentioned my concern of the world running out of 
oil.  Without hesitation they responded that they had sufficient 
technology to turn elemental carbon into gasoline and that we will 
"never" run out of high energy fuels, although 75 - 90 % of all the 
energy produced this way would be necessary to make the fuels.  Such a 
put down almost stopped me from taking the job they offered.  However, I 
didn't last there too long before going into the realm of industrial 
water treatment.

The change in careers allowed me access to many oil refineries 
worldwide.  But for me the most important and interesting experience in 
the fuel production industry came while working at the SASOL plant 
(South African Synthetic Oil - /Suid Afrikaanse Steenkool en Olie)/ 
outside of Johannesburg.  Notwithstanding the horrors of apartheid, the 
sanctions against SA caused many innovations that made it possible for 
the nation to survive.  The innovations were not only in manufacturing 
oil but also in life styles.  Public transportation, both ground and 
air, was improved, shipping of goods between different metropolises were 
done primarily by rail, most trucking was limited to intra-urban 
locations, conservation measures were explored and used as much as 
possible especially recycling of materials along with water saving 
procedures.  Try surviving on 4 liters of water a day -- one shower and 
you get no more for drinking or otherwise!

Unless substantial changes are made in our life styles, ethanol will be 
an unsustainable source of portable high energy just as fossil fuels 
are. With cheap energy, our consumption will only increase as we find 
more and more ways of using it.  Energy depletion is a myth because it 
cannot be increased or reduced, only changed.  It's up to us to find 
alternative methods of living our lives and using the energy we have to 
better advantage.

Jim Baumbach, using tons of fossil energy just to keep my wife warm in 
frigid Wisconsin.

James Wiegel wrote:
> The author set out to have 4 different meals around
> the notion that what makes life complicated for us as
> humans is we are omnivores -- we eat just about
> anything vs, like Pandas.  He suggests that having to
> figure out food may even account for some of why we
> need such big brains.  I know deciding dinner every
> night between Judy and I seems more and more an
> intellectual (not to mention volitional) challenge.
>
> But, I digress.  The first meal was a fast food meal,
> a McDonald's meal for the family and he traces the
> food system back to its origins of where that meal
> came from -- visiting a farm in Iowa, etc.  This is
> his analysis of the degree to which the large grain
> companies and the department of agriculture have
> worked together to generate such huge surpluses of
> corn and then continued the invention of ways to use
> the surplus, part of which is corn fed beef (cows
> don't naturally eat corn, they have to have their
> digestive system modified to deal with it) and all the
> way to ethanol.
>
> The second meal is organic, bought mostly at an
> organic food store, but also showing the degree to
> which the "organic" food business is now
> industrialized and pretty much nation wide.
>
> The third meal is part of the local food culture and
> mainly set on a "grass farm" in Virginia that is quite
> a remarkable story of integrated food production --
> they are such strong believers in local foods that
> they won't ship outside the area . . .
>
> The fourth meal he hunts and gathers himself in
> Northern California -- shoots a wild pig, gathers
> mushrooms, etc.
>
> The first section is a bit overwhelming re:  the
> industrial food system, but it jibes with another book
> I got from my daughter about the 6 families that
> control the global grain trade.  The other 3 sections
> are quite absorbing.
>
> $.25 please . . . 
>
> Jim Wiegel
> --- FacilitationFla at aol.com wrote:
>
>   
>>  
>>  
>> Please summary the jist of this book.  Thanks.  Cyn
>>  
>> In a message dated 1/29/2007 12:29:43 P.M. Eastern
>> Standard Time,  
>> khess at apk.net writes:
>>
>> Pretty much the whole corn economy is a fraud. You
>> can be sure Archer  
>> Daniels Midland is behind it.  The recent book on
>> this is  The Omnivore's Dilemma: A 
>> Natural  History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan. 
>> There was an interview  
>> with him on NPR not that long ago.  The book is
>> copyrighted 2006.
>>
>>
>> The mainstream media will not cover this, certainly
>> not the Lehrer New  Hour.
>>
>>
>> Karl
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  
>> Cynthia N.  Vance
>> Strategics International Inc.
>> 8245 SW 116 Terrace
>> Miami, Florida,  33156
>> 305-378-1327; fax 305-378-9178
>> _http://members.aol.com/facilitationfla_ 
>> (http://members.aol.com/facilitationfla) 
>>
>> Want  to build your own facilitation skills? 
>> Want to meet facilitators from around  the world and
>> in your own backyard? 
>> Mark your calendar for the International  Assoc. of
>> Facilitators Conference 
>> 2007 
>> Portland, Oregon -- March 8-10, 2007.  See
>> _www.iaf-world.org_ 
>> (http://www.iaf-world.org/) 
>>
>>     
>>> _______________________________________________
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