Great essay. I got into sustainability and peak oil back in 2007. On the subject of economics, I enjoyed reading David Korten’s books. Great outlines for a Post Corporate world and localization. My favorite is eliminating absentee ownership. Illegal for someone in your town to own a business unless they work there full-time - no fastfood, no supermarket chain, no Finance, Insurance, Real Estate chains… I also enjoyed John Michael Greer’s book, Economics as if Humans Mattered.
At my cousins' Kilimanjaro hotel electricity is still produced by generator. At our farm in Lesvos we joined the grid 20 years ago, stopping the generator. But in the last 10 years since Germany took over the Greek economy & elec. prices quadrupled through the imposition of their windmills (as salaries were reduced 8 times and pensions 17 times) the farm is more than half powered by voltaic panels....with spares in reserve.
We still have the old ploughs though and plenty of livestock to pull them. We still have our oil burning lamps (olive oil). This is the good side of being "under developed"....
In modernity we have climbed a ladder of energy and technology use, cutting each rung behind ourselves. This may pose problems if we need to descend, right?
These problems might also be imposed upon us... GASP!
Instead of using electricity to split hydrogen and oxygen apart from water, this process, which I read about over a decade ago, uses light to separate them. Hydrogen can be burned as a fuel, or used in a fuel-cell, where it produces electricity when it recombines with oxygen. This has long been used in space vehicles and space stations.
This is one of many things which could be done to some degree, based upon economics. It would require more fossil fuel than could be spared, and something like 30 years to build the infrastructure for a modestly-sixed hydrogen energy transfer system. Hydrogen, like a battery, transfers energy, which would be solar energy, later reconstituted as electricity, after being stored (like a battery) as hydrogen.
The fact that a thing can be done, does not mean that it could be done on a large scale. This is like so many other things in that way, like very large battery arrays to stabilize the electric grid run by wind and solar. It is the kind of thing that gets comparative-cost and feasibility analysis right away.
The "Eastern Roman Empire" was Byzantium, the capital Constantinople, now "Istanbul".
The Eastern empire long managed by complex negotiations and interwoven interests, until the Ottoman Empire overwhelmed it. Most people in Turkey are mainly of Greek extraction, fewer Turkic.
It was said at one time, about Constantinople, that "this Rome would also fall, but there is another that will never fall". That "Rome" has always been interpreted to mean "Moscow".
Economic Truths
Great essay. I got into sustainability and peak oil back in 2007. On the subject of economics, I enjoyed reading David Korten’s books. Great outlines for a Post Corporate world and localization. My favorite is eliminating absentee ownership. Illegal for someone in your town to own a business unless they work there full-time - no fastfood, no supermarket chain, no Finance, Insurance, Real Estate chains… I also enjoyed John Michael Greer’s book, Economics as if Humans Mattered.
At my cousins' Kilimanjaro hotel electricity is still produced by generator. At our farm in Lesvos we joined the grid 20 years ago, stopping the generator. But in the last 10 years since Germany took over the Greek economy & elec. prices quadrupled through the imposition of their windmills (as salaries were reduced 8 times and pensions 17 times) the farm is more than half powered by voltaic panels....with spares in reserve.
We still have the old ploughs though and plenty of livestock to pull them. We still have our oil burning lamps (olive oil). This is the good side of being "under developed"....
THIS. Suuuuper interesting and maybe blows everything we know right out the door...
https://fritzfreud.substack.com/p/prof-daniel-nocera-and-his-artificial
Fritz is one of your readers, by the way! ^_^
Thanks Eleni,
In modernity we have climbed a ladder of energy and technology use, cutting each rung behind ourselves. This may pose problems if we need to descend, right?
These problems might also be imposed upon us... GASP!
Instead of using electricity to split hydrogen and oxygen apart from water, this process, which I read about over a decade ago, uses light to separate them. Hydrogen can be burned as a fuel, or used in a fuel-cell, where it produces electricity when it recombines with oxygen. This has long been used in space vehicles and space stations.
This is one of many things which could be done to some degree, based upon economics. It would require more fossil fuel than could be spared, and something like 30 years to build the infrastructure for a modestly-sixed hydrogen energy transfer system. Hydrogen, like a battery, transfers energy, which would be solar energy, later reconstituted as electricity, after being stored (like a battery) as hydrogen.
The fact that a thing can be done, does not mean that it could be done on a large scale. This is like so many other things in that way, like very large battery arrays to stabilize the electric grid run by wind and solar. It is the kind of thing that gets comparative-cost and feasibility analysis right away.
Business likes this kind of thing.
The "Eastern Roman Empire" was Byzantium, the capital Constantinople, now "Istanbul".
The Eastern empire long managed by complex negotiations and interwoven interests, until the Ottoman Empire overwhelmed it. Most people in Turkey are mainly of Greek extraction, fewer Turkic.
It was said at one time, about Constantinople, that "this Rome would also fall, but there is another that will never fall". That "Rome" has always been interpreted to mean "Moscow".