I found an interesting article on the International Herald Tribune website that I thought I would share with you:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/28/opinion/edlieven.php
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Energy and the Future of the United States and the World
The time has come to talk about one of the most pressing issues of our day.
Energy, as we have come to love in this technological age, is becoming harder to come by for large portions of the world's economy. Where we are most hit is through the need for oil, primarily for gasoline, and coal and natural gas for the generation of electricity to be used in our homes. The amount of coal and natural gas we have reasonably available will last several centuries before it fully runs out, but oil is not such a vast resource as it once was. Our economies will be hit hardest by the need for oil to run the transportation infrastructure. This will be the beginning of a decline in progress for the world as it gradually comes to a halt and has to use old modes of transportation for getting around. It may not even come to that point, a peaceful one I might add. It is far more likely that the world will be in a struggle to the death for oil in places around the world and no country will be able to hide from this, not even the United States. All of this disaster can be averted if we come up with a serious alternative to oil and share it with everyone on the planet. This can be done, but there need to be some steps taken, which may be being taken right now for all we know.
The technologically advanced countries, the cream of the industrialized and developed world, are the only ones who are capable of such a technological breakthrough. The developing world and the third world will depend on this breakthrough just as much as those already advanced socially and technologically. It is likely that methods of war that we are currently unprepared for will spread around the planet like an apocalypse if we don't do something. The question is what do we do?
This question is continually being asked by the scientific community, for the one who figures out this problem is likely to be a trillionaire. So what are some of the ideas floating around right now and how seriously can they address the problem? Some of the ideas are ones many of us are already aware of: solar technology, nuclear energy, clean coal burning, hydrogen fuel cell, biodiesel, wind energy, and hydroelectric energy to name a few. A detailed assessment of the progress of many of these alternatives gives some hope, but also brings a lot of worry as well. Solar energy has the potential to solve all of our problems, but it has a problem with efficiency of energy conversion from light to electricity. Nuclear energy also has the potential to solve, or at least delay, problems for some time to come as well, but it comes with serious political and scientific issues: disposal of fissile waste, building of new fission plants, weapons potential, and scientific hurdles for efficient sustained fusion reactions. Clean coal burning could offset our problems for some time if it can be integrated into a hydrogen economy, of which there is not real infrastructure for at the moment, if some environmental issues can be worked out, as well as detailed social planning. Wind energy and hydroelectric energy are also large contributors and could be slightly greater contributors, but they fail to a address a majority of the problem. Biodiesel is promising if it can team up with bioengineering and biochemistry to develop the proper enzymes or bacteria for digesting corn and the husks into usable hydrocarbons. Clearly, we need a multipronged approach to solving the energy and fuel problems since none of these alternatives can solve the entire problem alone without either a major scientific breakthrough in the near future or serious political action.
Science is a slow process and is likely to come up with a solution some time, but we simply can't wait for that day as the situation around the world deteriorates as resource wars become more common. Our only "good" alternative is using the political process to affect change.
Whether you believe that the governments around the world are so deep in the pockets of corporations, or whether you believe they are honest and just don't know what to do or believe something else, I offer some advice to each one of you. If you believe this is a serious enough problem that one day it will affect you, for example, through the drafting of a loved one into one of these unnecessary resource wars or simply destruction of the economy and a following long term depression, I suggest you form town meetings to discuss this problem and decide whether it is serious or not, obviously I believe it is, and then go from your town meetings to influence your city, your county, your state, and then your country. Many have lost hope in this political system, but its what we have to work with and it depends on the wishes of the smallest person and their community, otherwise politicians would have no power. I don't suggest a countrywide riot to solve this problem, simply a person by person approach to debating the problem and asking for solutions to be implemented before we have to face unnecessary dangers in the future, whether it is in our generation or our grandchildren's generation.
Good luck! It all starts with you!
Energy, as we have come to love in this technological age, is becoming harder to come by for large portions of the world's economy. Where we are most hit is through the need for oil, primarily for gasoline, and coal and natural gas for the generation of electricity to be used in our homes. The amount of coal and natural gas we have reasonably available will last several centuries before it fully runs out, but oil is not such a vast resource as it once was. Our economies will be hit hardest by the need for oil to run the transportation infrastructure. This will be the beginning of a decline in progress for the world as it gradually comes to a halt and has to use old modes of transportation for getting around. It may not even come to that point, a peaceful one I might add. It is far more likely that the world will be in a struggle to the death for oil in places around the world and no country will be able to hide from this, not even the United States. All of this disaster can be averted if we come up with a serious alternative to oil and share it with everyone on the planet. This can be done, but there need to be some steps taken, which may be being taken right now for all we know.
The technologically advanced countries, the cream of the industrialized and developed world, are the only ones who are capable of such a technological breakthrough. The developing world and the third world will depend on this breakthrough just as much as those already advanced socially and technologically. It is likely that methods of war that we are currently unprepared for will spread around the planet like an apocalypse if we don't do something. The question is what do we do?
This question is continually being asked by the scientific community, for the one who figures out this problem is likely to be a trillionaire. So what are some of the ideas floating around right now and how seriously can they address the problem? Some of the ideas are ones many of us are already aware of: solar technology, nuclear energy, clean coal burning, hydrogen fuel cell, biodiesel, wind energy, and hydroelectric energy to name a few. A detailed assessment of the progress of many of these alternatives gives some hope, but also brings a lot of worry as well. Solar energy has the potential to solve all of our problems, but it has a problem with efficiency of energy conversion from light to electricity. Nuclear energy also has the potential to solve, or at least delay, problems for some time to come as well, but it comes with serious political and scientific issues: disposal of fissile waste, building of new fission plants, weapons potential, and scientific hurdles for efficient sustained fusion reactions. Clean coal burning could offset our problems for some time if it can be integrated into a hydrogen economy, of which there is not real infrastructure for at the moment, if some environmental issues can be worked out, as well as detailed social planning. Wind energy and hydroelectric energy are also large contributors and could be slightly greater contributors, but they fail to a address a majority of the problem. Biodiesel is promising if it can team up with bioengineering and biochemistry to develop the proper enzymes or bacteria for digesting corn and the husks into usable hydrocarbons. Clearly, we need a multipronged approach to solving the energy and fuel problems since none of these alternatives can solve the entire problem alone without either a major scientific breakthrough in the near future or serious political action.
Science is a slow process and is likely to come up with a solution some time, but we simply can't wait for that day as the situation around the world deteriorates as resource wars become more common. Our only "good" alternative is using the political process to affect change.
Whether you believe that the governments around the world are so deep in the pockets of corporations, or whether you believe they are honest and just don't know what to do or believe something else, I offer some advice to each one of you. If you believe this is a serious enough problem that one day it will affect you, for example, through the drafting of a loved one into one of these unnecessary resource wars or simply destruction of the economy and a following long term depression, I suggest you form town meetings to discuss this problem and decide whether it is serious or not, obviously I believe it is, and then go from your town meetings to influence your city, your county, your state, and then your country. Many have lost hope in this political system, but its what we have to work with and it depends on the wishes of the smallest person and their community, otherwise politicians would have no power. I don't suggest a countrywide riot to solve this problem, simply a person by person approach to debating the problem and asking for solutions to be implemented before we have to face unnecessary dangers in the future, whether it is in our generation or our grandchildren's generation.
Good luck! It all starts with you!
Friday, December 22, 2006
A History of God
It has been a long time since I posted, but I'm back.
I was not able to read "The Years of Rice and Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson, but I was able to read another book that I think is worth mentioning to you readers. The book that I'm about twenty pages from finishing is "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong. I've found this book so enlightening that I could probably write hundreds of blog entries about it, but I won't and I'll let you guys discover the book for yourselves. However, you guys are welcome to talk about it here in the comments section!
This book delivers an analysis of history and religion that have yet to be matched in the books I've read over the course of my life.
The author, Karen Armstrong, is also a facinating character. She used to be a nun for the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and is quite well-read in nearly all the religions of the world. If you would like to read more about her, check out her wikipedia biography here.
I hope at some point to read "The Years of Rice and Salt," but we'll see...
I was not able to read "The Years of Rice and Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson, but I was able to read another book that I think is worth mentioning to you readers. The book that I'm about twenty pages from finishing is "A History of God" by Karen Armstrong. I've found this book so enlightening that I could probably write hundreds of blog entries about it, but I won't and I'll let you guys discover the book for yourselves. However, you guys are welcome to talk about it here in the comments section!
This book delivers an analysis of history and religion that have yet to be matched in the books I've read over the course of my life.
The author, Karen Armstrong, is also a facinating character. She used to be a nun for the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and is quite well-read in nearly all the religions of the world. If you would like to read more about her, check out her wikipedia biography here.
I hope at some point to read "The Years of Rice and Salt," but we'll see...
Thursday, July 06, 2006
The End of Faith
As I said earlier, I want to look at the influence of religion on the human condition and also the development of the skeptical society of secularists. A book that I read over the past week is called "The End of Faith," written by Sam Harris, which is a book that looks at the influence of religion on every single action we commit and the possibility of ethics and spirituality in a world where religion does not reign supreme. Anyone who is open minded to atheistic, agnostic, and secular humanistic points of view will find this book well-written and refreshing. I also suggest this book to those who many not be so open minded as a challenge to their faith.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
East Meets West Bookclub: Book One
The first book I would like to examine is a novel by Kim Stanley Robinson called "The Years of Rice and Salt," a book about the consequences and the lives of many people in a world where the Black Plague wiped out most of Europe's population in the fourteenth century.
I am planning to come back in a month to talk about this book and see how much progress has been made. It is a very long book, over 700 pages, so it will take some time to finish this book. I am hoping that this book will open up the eyes of the West to what might have happened with Buddhism and Islam being the major world religions and promulgators of culture, and what it might tell us about what is in store for the West in the future with a greater interaction with Eastern and Middle Eastern philosophies and societies.
I am planning to come back in a month to talk about this book and see how much progress has been made. It is a very long book, over 700 pages, so it will take some time to finish this book. I am hoping that this book will open up the eyes of the West to what might have happened with Buddhism and Islam being the major world religions and promulgators of culture, and what it might tell us about what is in store for the West in the future with a greater interaction with Eastern and Middle Eastern philosophies and societies.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Plato
I was hoping I could also start a bookclub online through this blog where books relating to Western Philosophy and books relating to Eastern Philosophy are examined and talked about. I think this would be a positive thing because it would enable a bridge of dialogue to form between two parts of the world that have been in constant struggle for the entirety of human history.
More coming soon...
There will be more coming to this blog soon, but I'm in the process of organizing topics and gaining permissions for material usage. Some of the topics you can expect will be discussed in this blog in the future will be:
-Secularism and Religion
-Oil
-Capitalism and the Progress of Democracy
-Life
-Science
-Disease
-Political Reformation
and much more!
-Secularism and Religion
-Oil
-Capitalism and the Progress of Democracy
-Life
-Science
-Disease
-Political Reformation
and much more!
Sunday, June 18, 2006
First Post
Welcome to the Commoner's blog!
The hope of this blog is to expand the dialogue on issues facing the world, from science to religion, and everywhere in between.
The hope of this blog is to expand the dialogue on issues facing the world, from science to religion, and everywhere in between.
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