Comparative Fuel Efficiency by Country, 1970-2005

Edward Burtynsky’s Oil

Alberta Oil Sands #6, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada, 2007.

Noted Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has an acute awareness of the scale of our impact on the earth and an uncanny ability to capture it in photos. Click on the image a couple of times to get the full effect. Like seeing his work in person (they are HUGE), the bigger the image is, the more impact it has. Photos from his new work, Oil, can be seen here. His photo of NB's own Saint John refinery is among those decorating the right hand column of the blog.

Burtynsky's TED talk about his work can be seen here.

Dancing at the Edge of the Precipice

Alexis Ziegler's article, Dancing at the Edge of the Precipice, is a profound analysis of the global energy situation that goes well beyond the usually narrow "peak oil" discussion. The article ties shrinking resources to global class divisions, imperialist state and corporate power relations, and the decline of civil liberties. A sample:

"We are part of an aging Empire that is now facing a constriction of energy supply, which will in turn exacerbate the impacts of other ecological and resource limits. Put simply, if the global supply of energy and resources is shrinking, and if the global upper class is intent on maintaining its lifestyle at current or expanded levels, the consumption of the rich must be supported by a reduction of consumption among the poor. If the energy pie is shrinking and we intend to continue to eat the same or more, than everyone else must eat less."

* * * * *

"In the larger perspective, we do not face an energy crisis at all. Even as oil supplies decline, we will still have a greater supply of energy and other resources at our disposal than our grandparents had. . . The real issue is power. As we discussed in Culture Change, consumption is power, throughput is power. The desire of the global upper class to hold on to power drives them to continue to consume, and that is creating a conflict over dwindling resources."

Gadgets and the Jevons Paradox

The NYTimes has a nice article describing how increases in the electrical efficiency of consumer electronics is actually leading to an increase in electrical consumption (because the number of gadgets we have is increasing). This trend will only get worse as we move toward the world of ubiquitous computing described in Adam Greenfield's book Everyware.








This same process occurred with automobiles, increases in fuel efficiency and emissions reduction from catalytic converters were offset by increases in the amount driven and, as a result, auto emissions were not reduced. The phenomena is so well know that economists have a name for it, the Jevons Paradox, referring to the tendency for technological increases in the efficiency with which a resource is used to increase, rather than decrease, the rate of consumption of that resource.

The folks over at Workers of the World Relax have put together a video about the paradox, suggesting that the solution is for North Americans to follow the European model and use productivity gains to increase the amount of leisure time rather than to increase production and consumption.