Oil. The life blood of the economy. Why did it become so important? How dependent on it are we? Will it form part of our future? Watch the next couple of videos from the Post Carbon Institute.....
The above videos suggest that medieval humans extracted coal because they ran out of wood. Normally, when an important resource in an animal population's environment is over consumed, that population collapses, and does not recover until the resource recovers. Yet the human brain allows for quick adaptation, and human technology evolved around the easy access of fossil fuels. Since then, technology mixed with entrepreneurial spirit has allowed humans to continue to increase the carrying capacity of the Earth, and so increase its population.
Now imagine the global human mind as the scientific and engineering community, with lightning quick communication. The inventive mind of mankind is now much more adaptable and powerful than in medieval times.
- Will technological adaptation continue to allow human population expansion and exploitation of natural resources? Is there an inevitable upper limit to how numerous the human population can become, and how much humans can consume? Is a human population collapse likely?
- Will future technologies reduce green house gas emissions and sequester those gases already in the atmosphere, and therefore help cool the planet?
- Will expansion of the world economy continue? How will this effect biodiversity? Will extinctions rates remain high if humans somehow overcome the limiting factor of scarce oil?
- Will future economies respect other species and ecosystem? Or will the free market, limited only by a new energy regime, still destroy habitats around the world unless constrained by regulation?
- Can we create a better tomorrow if fossil fuels remain part of the energy mix?
The videos below give insight to where the human race may be heading, and may help answer the above questions.
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