What you need to know now about America's energy future
Hi, I'm the United States and I'm an oil-oholic. We have an energy
problem. And everybody knows it, even if we can't all agree on what,
specifically, the problem is. Rising costs, changing climate, peaking
oil, foreign oil, public safety--if the fears are this complicated, then
the solutions are bound to be even more confusing. Maggie
Koerth-Baker--science editor at the award-winning blog
BoingBoing.net--finally makes some sense out of the madness. Over the
next 20 years, we'll be forced to cut 20 quadrillion BTU worth of fossil
fuels from our energy budget, by wasting less and investing in
alternatives. To make it work, we'll need to radically change the energy
systems that have shaped our lives for 100 years. And the result will be
neither business-as-usual, nor a hippie utopia. Koerth-Baker explains
what we can do, what we can't do, and why The Solution is really a lot
of solutions working together. This isn't about planting a tree, buying
a Prius, and proving that you're a good person. Economics and social
incentives got us a country full of gas-guzzling cars, long commutes,
inefficient houses, and coal-fired power plants out in the middle of
nowhere, and economics and incentives will be the things that build our
new world. Ultimately, change is inevitable.
- Argues we're not going to solve the energy problem by convincing
everyone to live like it's 1900 because that's not a good thing.
Instead of reverting to the past, we have to build a future where we
get energy from new places, use it in new ways, and do more with less.
- Clean coal? Natural gas? Nuclear? Electric cars? We'll need them all.
When you look at the numbers, you'll find that we'll still be using
fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewables for decades to come.
- Looks at new battery technology, smart grids, passive buildings,
decentralized generation, clean coal, and carbon sequestration. These
are buzzwords now, but they'll be a part of your world soon. For many
people, they already are.
- Written by the cutting edge Science Editor for Boing Boing, one of the
ten most popular blogs in America
