My name is Peter Catchpole, senior project manager on the civil engineering side for POWER Engineers, a company that works with every type of electricity. As an engineer, I consider it my responsibility via the engineering profession’s code of ethics, to serve the public good, hopefully through actions taken by my employer or client based on – at least in part –my work. That is why I enjoy working at POWER Engineers so much, we are a company that is focused on making the most of sustainable power in our current projects.
You’ll notice I say sustainable energy, rather than green energy. The reason is there is difference between the two. Green is a concept directed at the environment: air and water quality, etc. Sustainability is aimed at any action we take, green or not.
Green tries to preserve the air and water - and things related to the health of the air and water such as forests and ice caps - from pollution, effectively to prevent them from extinction as useful things. Sustainability intends to maintain consumption rates of resources to a level equal to or below their replacement rate so that future generations and all of the present population can do what we do.
It may well be that arguments can be made that, in detail, they are not quite the same. But no matter because both matter.
I will say this about the term “Green Energy” ; There are shades of green and some things called green for political reasons are actually not very green at all. Wind is not very green and water power is not totally green except by comparison to fossil fuels which are completely unsustainable because they cannot be replaced.
In order to become a “greener” society we need to change so of our habits. We need far less consumption of energy of all types resulting in the need to generate far less energy of any type. It is said that the western world (North America and Western Europe) make up about 5% of the World population but they (we) consume about 40% of the World’s resources. This means that we are consuming about 8 times our truly fair share of the resources. That is an unsustainable condition. There is simply no way that this can go on for very long. If we keep it up, you will see far more rebellion against the western world by the increasingly impoverished than already takes place as resources dwindle.
We in the western world have nowhere to go but towards a lower consumption rate and I mean lower by a large factor. If we each (on average – and there is massive disparity between ourselves) were to reduce our energy consumption rate (fuel, water, food, etc) in half, we would still be hogs and on an unsustainable path. Imagine living with half of what you now have. Imagine living with less than even that amount.
The nature of we humans is that when asked to give up what we have, we overwhelmingly say “no.” We say no if we are poor because we have nothing to give. We say no if we are middle income because it will send us to poverty. We say no if we are wealthy because we are quite possibly wealthy because we are selfish. We humans will not give up our access to resources quietly or willingly. They will have to be taken away from us. Therefore, we will not voluntarily reach a state close to sustainability nor will we achieve green. We will reach these states only by force. You will not stop driving your car until gas is triple the present price.
This means that as the resources are used up because we cannot stop ourselves, we will be forced into habits of living with less – much less. The poor will go first (already going on) and the wealthy will go last. The sad fact is that, despite the noble belief that we are otherwise, this is who we are: a less than noble species. Now, our ingenuity will have us develop technologies that delay and slow the process but the planet is a finite place comprised of a molten ball of minerals shrouded in a very thin layer of useful air and water. In the very long term, there is not much here to work with.
As we all know, we each are born and we each die. That is a guarantee. Why the surprise or heartache that we as a collective species will ultimately do the same? We see that so many other species have gone that route as the resources that supported them evaporate. So it will be for the humans. Enjoy the short ride.
Anyone living in the western world between 1950 and (perhaps) 2050 has been fortunate to live in a rare, sweet spot in human history. No other patch of humanity had it like this. Compared to “us”, all of humanity is and/or has been a very tough struggle. That is the human experience norm, not this. Our story is not sustainable and I think you should not believe that it is. This sweet spot is a bubble based on theft that will end.
America’s own power infrastructure is one of the most outdated in the world. We have to focus on so many types of power generation because we consume so much of it!Only if we lower our consumption rate drastically so that a rational source can keep up with the demand. The country’s biggest mistakes stand out. Worst: There are two – 1) our complete reliance on fossil fueled transportation (road vehicles, diesel trains, ships and airplanes championed by 2) the perpetuated belief that we need this much energy to be OK. Best: the present trend towards the Sun and geothermal.
I will close with my personal motto: try to live modestly and remind people that they have it quite wrong if they believe they are on a sustainable path.
You’ll notice I say sustainable energy, rather than green energy. The reason is there is difference between the two. Green is a concept directed at the environment: air and water quality, etc. Sustainability is aimed at any action we take, green or not.
Green tries to preserve the air and water - and things related to the health of the air and water such as forests and ice caps - from pollution, effectively to prevent them from extinction as useful things. Sustainability intends to maintain consumption rates of resources to a level equal to or below their replacement rate so that future generations and all of the present population can do what we do.
It may well be that arguments can be made that, in detail, they are not quite the same. But no matter because both matter.
I will say this about the term “Green Energy” ; There are shades of green and some things called green for political reasons are actually not very green at all. Wind is not very green and water power is not totally green except by comparison to fossil fuels which are completely unsustainable because they cannot be replaced.
In order to become a “greener” society we need to change so of our habits. We need far less consumption of energy of all types resulting in the need to generate far less energy of any type. It is said that the western world (North America and Western Europe) make up about 5% of the World population but they (we) consume about 40% of the World’s resources. This means that we are consuming about 8 times our truly fair share of the resources. That is an unsustainable condition. There is simply no way that this can go on for very long. If we keep it up, you will see far more rebellion against the western world by the increasingly impoverished than already takes place as resources dwindle.
We in the western world have nowhere to go but towards a lower consumption rate and I mean lower by a large factor. If we each (on average – and there is massive disparity between ourselves) were to reduce our energy consumption rate (fuel, water, food, etc) in half, we would still be hogs and on an unsustainable path. Imagine living with half of what you now have. Imagine living with less than even that amount.
The nature of we humans is that when asked to give up what we have, we overwhelmingly say “no.” We say no if we are poor because we have nothing to give. We say no if we are middle income because it will send us to poverty. We say no if we are wealthy because we are quite possibly wealthy because we are selfish. We humans will not give up our access to resources quietly or willingly. They will have to be taken away from us. Therefore, we will not voluntarily reach a state close to sustainability nor will we achieve green. We will reach these states only by force. You will not stop driving your car until gas is triple the present price.
This means that as the resources are used up because we cannot stop ourselves, we will be forced into habits of living with less – much less. The poor will go first (already going on) and the wealthy will go last. The sad fact is that, despite the noble belief that we are otherwise, this is who we are: a less than noble species. Now, our ingenuity will have us develop technologies that delay and slow the process but the planet is a finite place comprised of a molten ball of minerals shrouded in a very thin layer of useful air and water. In the very long term, there is not much here to work with.
As we all know, we each are born and we each die. That is a guarantee. Why the surprise or heartache that we as a collective species will ultimately do the same? We see that so many other species have gone that route as the resources that supported them evaporate. So it will be for the humans. Enjoy the short ride.
Anyone living in the western world between 1950 and (perhaps) 2050 has been fortunate to live in a rare, sweet spot in human history. No other patch of humanity had it like this. Compared to “us”, all of humanity is and/or has been a very tough struggle. That is the human experience norm, not this. Our story is not sustainable and I think you should not believe that it is. This sweet spot is a bubble based on theft that will end.
America’s own power infrastructure is one of the most outdated in the world. We have to focus on so many types of power generation because we consume so much of it!Only if we lower our consumption rate drastically so that a rational source can keep up with the demand. The country’s biggest mistakes stand out. Worst: There are two – 1) our complete reliance on fossil fueled transportation (road vehicles, diesel trains, ships and airplanes championed by 2) the perpetuated belief that we need this much energy to be OK. Best: the present trend towards the Sun and geothermal.
I will close with my personal motto: try to live modestly and remind people that they have it quite wrong if they believe they are on a sustainable path.