For decades I've been telling people about the perils of depending on "growth" to bring us out of our energy or economic problems. I have frequently shown people that if the WORLD were a ball of oil and we had another, independent, source of Oxygen, at our present rate of growth of consumption, we'd burn the world up in under 400 years!
An astrophysicist discusses the growth problem from a similar angle, but includes solar and nuclear power to show that at our present rate of growth in the consumption of our resources we will reach a limit within the next 400 years. Of course, he maximizes efficiencies to 100% and he also traps every photon or atom of energy to arrive at a maximum time remaining for those resources. It is a very interesting read, and the gist of it is shown in a single graphic, which shows that even IF we could trap the ENTIRE energy radiating from the Sun we'd exhaust solar energy in under 400 years. IF we could trap all the energy emitted from ALL the suns in our galaxy we'd run out of energy in under 2,500 years. You read that right.
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/...-scale-energy/
Even more interesting is the following graph. Regardless of the source of energy, all power plants waste as much as 60% or more of the energy of the fuel as heat. This heat radiates away into space and part also raises the temperature of the Earth's surface. (This is not about CO2 warming or AGW.) This graph shows that within a few centuries the surface of the Earth would be too hot to support life.
[img width=400 height=300]http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/tmp-1024x768.png[/img]
An astrophysicist discusses the growth problem from a similar angle, but includes solar and nuclear power to show that at our present rate of growth in the consumption of our resources we will reach a limit within the next 400 years. Of course, he maximizes efficiencies to 100% and he also traps every photon or atom of energy to arrive at a maximum time remaining for those resources. It is a very interesting read, and the gist of it is shown in a single graphic, which shows that even IF we could trap the ENTIRE energy radiating from the Sun we'd exhaust solar energy in under 400 years. IF we could trap all the energy emitted from ALL the suns in our galaxy we'd run out of energy in under 2,500 years. You read that right.
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/...-scale-energy/
Even more interesting is the following graph. Regardless of the source of energy, all power plants waste as much as 60% or more of the energy of the fuel as heat. This heat radiates away into space and part also raises the temperature of the Earth's surface. (This is not about CO2 warming or AGW.) This graph shows that within a few centuries the surface of the Earth would be too hot to support life.
[img width=400 height=300]http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/tmp-1024x768.png[/img]