As more advanced approaches were chosen, the need for supplemental energy besides human energy became greater. At first, humans could use some of their spare time (and energy) to dig wells. The problem is that as we move up the chain of treatments, an increasing amount of energy of some kind needs to be used. In theory, we would never run out of water. In fact, after desalination, we need to put the correct minerals back into it and pump it to the destination where it is required.Īll of these approaches can indeed be employed. In some places, now, we find that desalination is needed. We found that lake water could be used, but we needed to filter it and treat it first. Then we found that we needed to dig deeper wells. As the number of humans rose, we found we needed additional approaches to gather enough potable water: First shallow wells were dug. This is the approach used by animals humans could use it as well.
When there were just a relatively few humans on the earth, drinking water from a nearby stream was a reasonable approach. Many people would call this a diminishing returns problem. Many resources take an increasing amount of effort to obtain or extract, because we use the easiest to obtain first. They also make economic growth more difficult. They tend to push the economy down, like a down escalator. In this post, I will explain some of the issues I see affecting the economy today. It is also a story of the loss of “economies of scale” that at one time helped propel the economy forward. It’s a story of services that we expect to continue, but which cannot continue without much more energy investment. Some might describe the energy story as a “diminishing returns” story, but it’s really broader than this. And, a virus that really doesn’t quite go away, leaving people worried and unwilling to attempt to resume normal activities. Too many bankrupt companies too many unemployed people too much debt that cannot be repaid. There are too many broken pieces of the economy. Telling people to stay at home provides a convenient way to end these demonstrations and restore order.īut then, restarting doesn’t work. There may have been demonstrations by groups asking for higher wages. Government officials may not be unhappy either. There is suddenly a chance to take it easy not drive to work not visit relatives not keep up appearances before friends. In fact, a break, like the pandemic, almost comes as a relief. Many citizens long to sit down and take a rest. Eventually the downward motion becomes almost unbearable. At first the downward motion of the escalator is almost imperceptible, but gradually it gets to be greater and greater. The economy is like a down escalator that citizens of the world are trying to walk upward on. Photo by renaissancechambara, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Let me explain it with an escalator analogy. Many people believe that the economy will start going badly wrong when we “run out of oil.” The problem we have today is indeed an energy problem, but it is a different energy problem.
How today’s energy problem is different from peak oil
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