This is excepted from a talk (pdf) by Matthew R. Simmons of Simmons and Company, investment bankers to the energy business. He seems quite convinced we have a serious energy crisis. Three of them, actually.
Mitigating peaking of modern energy will be an unprecedented global challenge.
– Fixing the problem takes â┚¬Å“between 7 yearsâ┚¬Â and up to 50 years.
– Starting ahead of the problem has no downside risk.
– Ignoring the crisis until it is in full bloom will make USA’s worst mistakes seem modest:
– It is time to take the crisis seriously before it is too late.
Yet none of our politicians are proposing anything substantive, are they?
How We Solve “Peak Oil”
We reduce transportation intensity of oil:
â┚¬â€œ Shipments of goods bytruck becomes train to boat
â┚¬â€œ Liberation of employees to work close to home
End 9 â┚¬â€œ 5 check in
Begin era of “pay by productivity”
Grow food locally: End era of ornamental food
Reverse globalization: make things at home
If the above were implemented fully, our society would change rather radically, wouldn’t it? Just think of the implications of ‘reverse globalization’ and what that would mean.
We face three crises
Oil is peaking
Natural Gas is peaking
Electricity has limits
And India, China, Brazil, etc. all are developing ravenous need for petroleum too. It’s all quite insane, isn’t it? And can’t last.