I'm a little groggy this morning, but I'll add my thoughts to Jeff's.
Jeff wrote:
> Energy and Cities
> One of the conclusions is that cities exist because of inexpensive energy.
>
> Anyway, the models suggested energy will begin impacting
> urban areas around 2010-2020. The oil availability per
> person will begin to decline and we will begin the shift
> to other energy sources.
>
> Conclusions: The urban areas outside cities may be good
> places to avoid in the future. And of course my favorite
> conclusion: the future will be strongly infulenced by energy,
> it will be useful to understand how it impacts our lives.
I feel that cities, as a social pattern rather than isolated exceptions,
can never be sustainable, by definition. Suburban areas, in so much that
they are extentions of the cities they serve, are also unsustainable. But,
suburban areas have the land and lower populations that at least give them
the potential to become sustainable, but only with a very different
structure. I don't see anything over about 100,000 as sustainable, and
even cities of that size would need a large supporting areas around it.
I heard an interesting argument AGAINST alternative energy / renewable
energy as our saviour. If, and I grant you it is an important "if", if
alternative energy / renewable energy is used merely as a replacement of
current energy sources, we will only be delaying an inevitable collapse of
industrial civilization. If alternative energy / renewable energy allows
us to continue on our current path of growing population, increasing energy
use, increasing consumption of renwable and nonrenewable resources,
increasing pollution, etc., then any benefits of alternative energy /
renewable energy will soon be cancelled out. And the destruction will
continue at ever increasing speed until environmental factors (food
production, clean water, loss of important resources with substitutes,
etc.) get in the way. By some etimates, we already commendeer 40% of the
solar energy falling on the land masses of the planet (perhaps the actual
number is not important). If we begin to harvest solar power on extremely
large scales as a substitute for fossil fuels, at what point will we be
taking more than our share? Will we cut down forests to make room for
solar panels? Will we shade parts of the plant with panels in space? How
do we build all of the solar panels without fossil fuels? With solar
power? Or is the use of coal - the only abundant fuel - justified for the
creation of solar pannels? Can we dam all of the rivers?
This is not to say that alternative energy / renewable energy has no place
in a sustainable future. Quite the opposite is true, I believe. And the
details are certainly open for argument. But, the key factor is not where
the energy comes from, but how we use it (and how many of us there are
using it).
On a recent trip to a historic gold mining area I was struck by a thought
that sneaks up on me now and again. This time it was some sqaure nails
that reminded me of how precious things are. Because of the difficulty in
getting supplies, most of the mining areas needed to produce much of what
they needed. Metal objects were hand made, often from iron, even recylced
from older objects. Today we take metal for granted. I have been building
a house and have used thousands of nails, throwing away (recycling) untold
numbers of bent nails. Why don't I take more time to straighten them?
Because they are cheap? Because I see them as od no use like a piece of
scrap paper? What would my life be like if I were to treat EVERYTHING as a
precious gift from the earth? Or as something representing all the time
and energy that goes into having it?
Water:
> I wonder if water might be a bigger problem
Some ranbling thoughts:
Dawn's recent post of an article about disolved pesticides in rain water
was unsettling. Ground water is already suspect, if not out right
unhealthy, in many places in the world. Water is a non-renewable resource
that is necessary in relatively clean form for the survival of most
species. Here in California, water has always been scarce, and therefore a
big political issue. I haven't tested our rain water yet, but we're not
using it yet either. I hope that the fact that our rain comes directly off
the Pacific gives us a better chance of having clean rain water. A couple
years ago in a Permaculture course someone said that clean water should be
a major consideration in property choice. Water is already more excpensive
than gasoline, and I have heard it said (unconfirmed, so who knows) that
the oil companies are buying springs and water companies. At any rate,
This seems to be something that needs attention.
