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In Henery Adams's audio biography 'The Education of Henry Adams'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Education_of_Henry_Adams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Educa

In Henery Adams's audio biography 'The Education of Henry Adams'http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Education_of_Henry_Adams http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Education_of_Henry_Adams (i.e. Henery Adams the grandson of John Quincy Adams was a 19'th century historian). He discusses his theory of history. In his model history is driven by the law of Acceleration which discribes the exponential growth of energy consumption through the 19'th century http://www.bartleby.com/159/34.html http://www.bartleby.com/159/34.html. Exponential growth in energy consumption was viewed as unsustainable as early as the 1860's but Henry Adams noted that it continued throughout his life up until the time he wrote his biography in 1904 and he saw no end to it.

wazoox 16y ago
> Exponential growth in energy consumption was viewed as unsustainable as early as the 1860's but Henry Adams noted that it continued throughout his life up until the time he wrote his biography in 1904 and he saw no end to it. We're seeing it now, however.
- swombat 16y ago
  The point of the story above is that people in Henry's time were seeing it too - and yet it didn't happen.
  - wazoox 16y ago
    They were seeing it as not sustainable, while we're actually seeing the first hiccups. As you may now know, finally the EIA admitted in its latest report that peak oil already occurred : http://www.iea.org/w/bookshop/add.aspx?id=422 http://www.iea.org/w/bookshop/add.aspx?id=422 quote :"If governments put in place the energy and climate policies to which they have committed themselves, then our analysis suggests that crude oil production has probably already peaked." Of course this didn't make the news. Keep on the denial, people.
    - rbanffy 16y ago
      Careful with your assumptions. Energy is nor equal to oil.
      - wazoox 16y ago
        Of course it isn't; however it represents the better part of our energy consumption, and we face an unknown : moving from one main source of energy to an inferior one (in the past, we always went from one source to a better one).
    - eru 16y ago
      Who cares about oil? Oil is important for moving vehicles, but not so much for global energy consumption, like say, electricity.
      - wazoox 16y ago
        Yeah sure. Oil makes up 38% of global energy consumption. Fossil fuels makes about 80% of global energy consumption. Electricity is NOT a primary energy source, and basically you don't know what you're talking about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2004_Worldwide_Energy_Sources_graph.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2004_Worldwide_Energy_Sour...
        eru 16y ago
        Sorry, I should have made myself more clear: Oil is the most useful thing for driving vehicles. Apart from that, we have good substitutes for all other energy use cases, like generating electricity. Coal and nuclear power can last for quite some time. See `Sustainable Energy without the hot air' for some numbers. (It's available online.) We don't have the necessary capacity of say nuclear reactors ready at the moment. But that's an inconvenience of a few years at most. (Thanks for the link!) There may be peak oil, but no reason for peak energy.
        wazoox 16y ago

wazoox 16y ago

> Exponential growth in energy consumption was viewed as unsustainable as early as the 1860's but Henry Adams noted that it continued throughout his life up until the time he wrote his biography in 1904 and he saw no end to it. We're seeing it now, however.

swombat 16y ago
The point of the story above is that people in Henry's time were seeing it too - and yet it didn't happen.
- wazoox 16y ago
  They were seeing it as not sustainable, while we're actually seeing the first hiccups. As you may now know, finally the EIA admitted in its latest report that peak oil already occurred : http://www.iea.org/w/bookshop/add.aspx?id=422 http://www.iea.org/w/bookshop/add.aspx?id=422 quote :"If governments put in place the energy and climate policies to which they have committed themselves, then our analysis suggests that crude oil production has probably already peaked." Of course this didn't make the news. Keep on the denial, people.
  - rbanffy 16y ago
    Careful with your assumptions. Energy is nor equal to oil.
    - wazoox 16y ago
      Of course it isn't; however it represents the better part of our energy consumption, and we face an unknown : moving from one main source of energy to an inferior one (in the past, we always went from one source to a better one).
  - eru 16y ago
    Who cares about oil? Oil is important for moving vehicles, but not so much for global energy consumption, like say, electricity.
    - wazoox 16y ago
      Yeah sure. Oil makes up 38% of global energy consumption. Fossil fuels makes about 80% of global energy consumption. Electricity is NOT a primary energy source, and basically you don't know what you're talking about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2004_Worldwide_Energy_Sources_graph.png http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2004_Worldwide_Energy_Sour...
      - eru 16y ago
        Sorry, I should have made myself more clear: Oil is the most useful thing for driving vehicles. Apart from that, we have good substitutes for all other energy use cases, like generating electricity. Coal and nuclear power can last for quite some time. See `Sustainable Energy without the hot air' for some numbers. (It's available online.) We don't have the necessary capacity of say nuclear reactors ready at the moment. But that's an inconvenience of a few years at most. (Thanks for the link!) There may be peak oil, but no reason for peak energy.
        wazoox 16y ago