And so it goes
My title just a little tribute to the great Kurt Vonnegut's passing.
Mostly just thinking today that things may not be as they seem, or as expect, not a profound thought, but always curious.
As I bicycled to work today, nice partly sunny windy day, warm enough to just wear a windbreaker and biking gloves, as our two days of snow melts quickly, thinking about things, like how the "cheapness" of fossil fuels discourages more sustainable alternatives, but perhaps higher fuel prices will NEVER allow renewables to catch up, at least within our vast consumption patterns.
As oil reserves look tight, prices spike, and the third world notches down their consumption until prices moderate again. In times alternatives will look good, and grow, but even the lucky alternatives will always rise up to at best match the nonrenewable prices, because as soon as the are cheaper, demand will gobble them up until they're not.
THEN nonconventional nonrenewables will get their legs going and underprice all the renewable alternatives, and they CAN scale up better than renewables, so the price of energy will GO UP, trending with spikes and valleys, and unscale alternatives will at best ride along as cute ideas that never quite catch up. Well, my bike does give me hope.
At least I only have to worry about having enough food, and my lower speed (and motivation) keeps my world small enough.
I do believe in alternatives, renewable energy. I just think they'll NEVER scale up to 1/10 of what we use now. They'll keep rising, but asymptote far too low to make us happy. So in the future, most of us will have to use less, even if the elite keep their cars and jets. History isn't a great teacher about the future, except as a reminder that things DO CHANGE, and we live in a privileged time, and it may really be the greatest party ever conceived.
Future generations will tell tales of our age, and overall I don't expect too much judgment of our weakness to power. Anger just doesn't last when there is nothing to be done and there are things that need doing!
Worse fears like nuclear war are easier to express outrage, but even then our little suns are pinpricks to the earth in its grandeur.I guess I like Vonnegut most of all for his bold pessimism, at least in the end most of all.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11123162/kurt_vonnegut_says_this_is_the_end_of_the_world
Sure, it's easy to dismiss him, the sun is shining, spring is coming, and the world will turn green again. And in tougher times in the future, the same will be true. The constants in life are new birth, nurturance, fruitation, and death. And we can depend on that.
And so it goes.
Thank you my friend I never met!
Mostly just thinking today that things may not be as they seem, or as expect, not a profound thought, but always curious.
As I bicycled to work today, nice partly sunny windy day, warm enough to just wear a windbreaker and biking gloves, as our two days of snow melts quickly, thinking about things, like how the "cheapness" of fossil fuels discourages more sustainable alternatives, but perhaps higher fuel prices will NEVER allow renewables to catch up, at least within our vast consumption patterns.
As oil reserves look tight, prices spike, and the third world notches down their consumption until prices moderate again. In times alternatives will look good, and grow, but even the lucky alternatives will always rise up to at best match the nonrenewable prices, because as soon as the are cheaper, demand will gobble them up until they're not.
THEN nonconventional nonrenewables will get their legs going and underprice all the renewable alternatives, and they CAN scale up better than renewables, so the price of energy will GO UP, trending with spikes and valleys, and unscale alternatives will at best ride along as cute ideas that never quite catch up. Well, my bike does give me hope.
At least I only have to worry about having enough food, and my lower speed (and motivation) keeps my world small enough.
I do believe in alternatives, renewable energy. I just think they'll NEVER scale up to 1/10 of what we use now. They'll keep rising, but asymptote far too low to make us happy. So in the future, most of us will have to use less, even if the elite keep their cars and jets. History isn't a great teacher about the future, except as a reminder that things DO CHANGE, and we live in a privileged time, and it may really be the greatest party ever conceived.
Future generations will tell tales of our age, and overall I don't expect too much judgment of our weakness to power. Anger just doesn't last when there is nothing to be done and there are things that need doing!
Worse fears like nuclear war are easier to express outrage, but even then our little suns are pinpricks to the earth in its grandeur.I guess I like Vonnegut most of all for his bold pessimism, at least in the end most of all.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11123162/kurt_vonnegut_says_this_is_the_end_of_the_world
Sure, it's easy to dismiss him, the sun is shining, spring is coming, and the world will turn green again. And in tougher times in the future, the same will be true. The constants in life are new birth, nurturance, fruitation, and death. And we can depend on that.
And so it goes.
Thank you my friend I never met!
posted by Ares Olympus at 4:50 PM
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