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GDP relies on energy. Energy is getting scarcer and more expensive. GDP stalls and won't recover. This is somewhat oversimplified but resumes what's happening.
by wazoox 14y ago
GDP relies on energy. Energy is getting scarcer and more expensive. GDP stalls and won't recover. This is somewhat oversimplified but resumes what's happening.
- richardjordan 14y agoThe right answer. Economic growth maps almost exactly to the expansion of available energy inputs. As fossil fuel flow rates peak and growth in energy availability falters, so wil GDP growth. We have an economic system designed to function in a world of perpetual growth and perpetual growth in energy / natural resource availability. Our system and its underlying economic theories are not designed nor tested for environments of perpetual contraction of either.
- wazoox 14y agoAbsolutely. For those interested by this, an excellent blog is "Do the math": http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/ http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/ It explains through many articles how the law of physics put terminal limits on what we can achieve, and kills a lot of misconceptions, like "a service economy needs less energy", "we could replace nuclear/coal/oil with wind/solar/hydro", etc.
- richardjordan 14y agoCheers for the link