Energy
Energy is a general physical and chemical concept and does not reduce to any one issue or set of issues.
The analysis in this article follows those of Ivan Illich? and Craig Hubley, to clarify terms, and that of Cliff Joslyn? with respect to biology?.
The living ontology and LANL ontology use these distinctions, which are not those used in media debates. Generally, beyond very basic consumer choice such as to insulate? or drive?, most such debates are conducted on irrational and non-operational terms easily proven to be irrelevant to actual human habits and decisions over the long term.
energy isn't simple
The
food energy digestible by humans differs from animal feed
? used by domestic animal
?s, and these differ again from heat
?,
electricity and mechanical energy
? (sometimes from electricity and sometimes to move heat, e.g. in ground source heat
?. The energy transfer
? from one type of energy to another always results in significant losses, and so there is no such thing as one "
energy supply".
except to vegans
Objective statements remain possible however: if one assumes all inputs are equivalently local, vegan
? diets require less energy than other kinds of diets.
[+] energy can ONLY be calculated relative to an infrastructure from perspective of ultimate consumer
The food issue highlights a general problem. Proximity of the energy source to a human body
?, and its ease of use by that body including the use of devices and vehicles to make it accessible, matter.
The locality of that supply to the consumption, the type of supply, e.g.
oil supply, and how it moves around to the consumer, all effect the net energy at point of consumption
?.
no "net energy" beyond the body
There is no such thing as a general term:net energy
?, various God's Eye view
? problems arising from attempts to define one "net". Actual choices that are taken by actual entities in the actual world cannot refer to such an abstraction reliably, thus it is not operational
?.
[+] energy conservation drives evolution
All life form
?s evolved to minimize use of energy and maximize entropy: by definition,
life minimizes entropy
? which is detected as heat loss, and the point of maximum entropy is the border between being and environment
?. ATP
? in muscles, glucose
? in blood, fat
? stored in cells, and
food being digested to create this, are all part of an entity's energy profile.
[+] energy as a resource
When used politically or colloquially,
energy refers to external resource flow
?s needed to power human activity and civilization, and comes from or takes the form of
electricity, fossil fuel
?s or solar power
?. The
conceptual metaphor of energy as resource
? can obscure harder problems.
the hardest problems: transfer, transport
The political use cannot be separated from formal physical and chemical definitions. When making decisions, the energy transfer
? including energy transport
? functions tend to dominate any model. It cannot be reliably said to make sense to extract energy in one place and move it to another, beyond a certain distance, which might be extremely short. To
localize energy consumption is thus high priority in any effort to conserve energy
?.
In other words, energy locality defines conservation, and energy transport is an open-ended problem including a vast array of other problems including human
health,
e.g. see the Tar Sands issue.
[+] energy can ONLY be "saved" by creativity
However, to conserve necessarily involves the same process by which life itself evolved: trying many alternative forms, picking a few functional for a given environment that minimize need to eat and thus to forage or extend one's roots out beyond what one can control, and possibly even divine creativity
?. These are inherently slow, inherently difficult, and inherently prone to failure: 99.9% of species that have lived on Earth became
extinct for failing to solve this problem in light of competition with other life forms, changes in
climate, and other issues.
energy and equity (Illich)
Ivan Illich
?, in
Energy and Equity?, made an irrefutable argument that control over the deployment of human-controlled energy was, in its food, animal and mechanical forms, tautologically defined as power: that lack of ability to direct energy was lack of
power in both sociological and mechanical senses.
Accordingly, equity
? would determine energy access, and energy access would determine equity, and failures of either would necessarily create a vicious cycle
?.
Key issues
Openpolitics.ca itself makes some assumptions with reference to common
infrastructural capital - the power grid
?, means to refine oil
?, transport oil
?, transport gas
?, and the vehicle
?s and furnace
?s and generator
?s involved. Within these assumptions, it is possible to frame issue
?s:
energy demand - which leads to energy conservation?
oil supply
power sources
fossil fuel?s
nuclear power
renewable power?
power uses
electricity, e.g. to run computer?s
mechanical energy?, e.g. to turn wheel?s
Problems related to power generation and use
global warming/climate?
air pollution
energy crisis?
global poverty
|
picture credit:http://www.uic.com.au/whyu.htm
|
The cartoon? is an example of propaganda for nuclear power: uranium? is shown as necessary to most dependent "renewable" sources which rely on a baseload? in most applications. Other sources are shown as competitive with uranium, but losing.
argument for: If the prices for renewable energy reflected the avoided health and environemntal costs, compared against the pollution imposed by fossil fuels. Denmark?, Germany? and Spain? became world leaders in wind power this way, Prince Edward Island seeks to do so. The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association? at http://www.ontario-sea.org and other groups advocate doing so in Canada
position: As a society, we need to anticipate and accelerate change
To reduce energy demands and create good jobs through conservation and efficiency measures, so that an energy-efficient economy? exists before a climate crisis, is now urgent.
- Develop sustainable trades within this economy
- Develop renewable and alternative energy sources to phase out fossil fuel and nuclear power within fifty years.
- Focus on future energy and soft energy technologies.
argument against: energy conservation is the base creativity of life, it simply can't be planned at all
Such programs may do more harm than good. Only narrow measures to reflect regret? in prices can work, as there is no generality to the problem of conservation. It requires many small and localized changes, and the larger programs simply result in wasted overall energy - which unlike potential energy, is calculable?.
argument against: we can't accelerate the market
To avoid a crisis requires expending energy to change the infrastructural capital (tools, devices) and instructional capital (training, habit?s). Since food production and incomes by which most buy food and shelter depend on fossil fuels, and since their use must be limited and at least become expensive, the market will take care of the problem.
Canada is far behind. In Europe as of 2006-03, over 3 million households were using solar water heater?s. In Canada that is less than 1% as many but rising fast.
argument for: governments often accelerate price changes
It's government's job to accelerate and alter pricing.
1. Promote investments in energy conservation and the more efficient use of energy. We need to iron out the market imperfections which have impeded this, and spread the information which markets need to function properly, about the profitable opportunities in these fields.
2. Impose high and rising taxes on fossil fuels. Imagine a family whose house is soon to be condemnned, and to make matters worse, this family survives on a home based business. If the family is homeless they have no way to make money. - ergo they must save now, and buy a better house before their old one fails. It is much better for society if government forces society to "prepay" and "save" for the coming energy crunch before actual energy prices shoot to high. Bonus: If we can raise the price of fossil fuels through taxes we can reduce other taxes to compensate.
3. Require better urban planning: public transit?, anti-sprawl etc., are part of this. See eco-city, ICLEI, CEG and ECG.
Ignore Peak Oil as some advise?
Or panic over Limits to World Fuel Supplies?
| | |
|
|
edit
