A Lack of Energy

I read reports like this and I think of late 50's and early 60's sci-fi flicks. I think of the movies with resurrected dinosaur-like monsters and 50 foot women-- movies that focus on products of well intended science gone bad.

I tend to think of our planet as an organism. Not in the sense that if you pick a flower somewhere the earth says "ouch!" but in the sense the whole of it is inseparable from the sum of it parts. Fracking, deep ocean drilling, nuclear energy with its virtually eternal toxic waste, digging big holes for coal, and now, extracting natural gas from the ocean floor-- these discussions always leave me a little nervous and disappointed.

I'm nervous because I am inclined to believe that even the most knowledgable and well-intended (read: free of financial incentive) efforts still lack full understanding for the impact of their work. Namely, I don't understand how we can just keep sucking stuff out of this big blue ball before it starts to cause some pretty serious structural problems. Disappointed because I know there is this limitless energy source just over our heads that we are not understanding. As long as we keep pursuing new ways to do the old stuff we are not going to move forward into gaining the ability to harness a truly efficient and bountiful energy source.

The example that comes to mind on the subject of solar energy development is that of the computer. Where we're at with energy right now is all pre-silicon chip technology, if you will. It's like we are building bigger and bigger computers rather than discovering ways to capture and store information on smaller and smaller devices. At this rate, to use the computer analogy, it's as if in order to have a home computer you would need a house with a dedicated room the size of a two-car garage to house the thing. Without the microchip we would have no internet, no digital music, photos, or storage. It required a different way to do the same work in order to move us to where we are today with computers in damn near every room of the house and blanketed all over the globe.

Necessity is the mother of invention. As it relates to the energy problems we face, I fear we are failing to be bold and, instead, pursuing reckless avenues to the same old destination. Worse still, we have no firm idea of just where it is we will end up.