This article is about the future and what it may look like based on what has happened so far. The author looks back to 1893 when the American Press Association gathered the country's "best minds" to give their prediction of the world 100 years from then(now). Coal was expected to be the dominant energy source and that "electricity would be universal." This was accurate for the most part but they never predicted the shortage of oil that today's economy is now experiencing. "Nor did they foresee that oil and other fossil fuels would one day be used on such a scale as to raise water levels, disrupt ecosystems, or increase the intensity of heat waves, droughts, and floods."
They author explains that fossil fuels which fueled the industrial revolution will soon no longer be able to sustain this new global economy. A new energy source will become the new foundation of civilization. "The next century may be as profoundly shaped by the move away from fossil fuels as this century was marked by the move toward them."
Breakthroughs in chemistry technological science will also have a profound effect the energy of tomorrow. More efficient environmentally friendly products which require operated by the forerunners of the booming nanotechnology industry. A planet with a more decentralized energy world energy economy "will require a breakthrough not so much in science or technology as in values and lifestyles."
Citations:
Reinventing the Energy System. by Christopher Flavin and Seth Dunn
Picture:
http://conceptsustainable.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/0808_efficiency.jpg
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