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Jean-Marc Jancovici is a French engineer/entrepreneur who study energy and climate change for about 30 years. There is a single talk I know he gave in China th

by tchvil 6y ago

Jean-Marc Jancovici is a French engineer/entrepreneur who study energy and climate change for about 30 years. There is a single talk I know he gave in China that is in English: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRC5-hAbUGA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRC5-hAbUGA Unfortunately most other talks are in French(auto subtitles maybe). His style is a little arrogant and may hit a nerve. But past this, all he says is backed by research and physics. He says renewable can't provide the level of energy we have without decreasing drastically our consumption. And nuclear fission is the only path we have to reduce our CO2 emissions. I would love renewable or fusion to cover all our needs, and keep my comfortable life as it is today. But I didn't find any inspiring talks or readings so far to balance his arguments.

the_gastropod 6y ago
> I would love renewable or fusion to cover all our needs, and keep my comfortable life as it is today I've been reading Jason Hickel's book "Less is More" [1], which talks a bit about energy use, in general, and how it must be reduced, regardless of what technologies we wind up with. And one of his points is examining how much energy is just flat-out wasted. ~50% of food is just wasted, for example—whether because it's ugly, or left in a refrigerator too long, and rots. Think about how most American cities are designed, and how it's just normal for most Americans to own and drive personal vehicles for hours each day. Those resources and the energy needed to extract those resources is largely just unnecessarily wasted. Consider countries like Costa Rica, Finland, Taiwan, etc., where quality of life is better than in the US. Life expectancy is higher. Infant mortality is lower. Education is better. And they need a tiny fraction of the energy the U.S. does. Clearly there's room for a lot of improvement with how we use energy. [1] https://www.jasonhickel.org/less-is-more https://www.jasonhickel.org/less-is-more
- Hammershaft 6y ago
  This is similar to the point Vaclav Smil makes when he looks at our dismal prospects for decarbonization, if humanity is going to survive, then we are simply going to have to consume less. I think this concept of reduced consumption is in conflict with a system of high inequality today that is often justified by the prospect of (slowing) growth. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/vaclav-smil-interview-growth-must-end-economists https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/vaclav-smil-in...

by tchvil 6y ago

the_gastropod 6y ago

> I would love renewable or fusion to cover all our needs, and keep my comfortable life as it is today I've been reading Jason Hickel's book "Less is More" [1], which talks a bit about energy use, in general, and how it must be reduced, regardless of what technologies we wind up with. And one of his points is examining how much energy is just flat-out wasted. ~50% of food is just wasted, for example—whether because it's ugly, or left in a refrigerator too long, and rots. Think about how most American cities are designed, and how it's just normal for most Americans to own and drive personal vehicles for hours each day. Those resources and the energy needed to extract those resources is largely just unnecessarily wasted. Consider countries like Costa Rica, Finland, Taiwan, etc., where quality of life is better than in the US. Life expectancy is higher. Infant mortality is lower. Education is better. And they need a tiny fraction of the energy the U.S. does. Clearly there's room for a lot of improvement with how we use energy. [1] https://www.jasonhickel.org/less-is-more https://www.jasonhickel.org/less-is-more

Hammershaft 6y ago
This is similar to the point Vaclav Smil makes when he looks at our dismal prospects for decarbonization, if humanity is going to survive, then we are simply going to have to consume less. I think this concept of reduced consumption is in conflict with a system of high inequality today that is often justified by the prospect of (slowing) growth. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/vaclav-smil-interview-growth-must-end-economists https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/sep/21/vaclav-smil-in...