Nikiforuk: The Big Shift
Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2013 10:58 amAndrew Nikiforuk: The Big Shift
< http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/02/18/Big-E ... ign=180213 >
A great energy transition is coming. Will it mean a better day for humanity, or turmoil? First in a series.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, February 18, 2013 TheTyee.ca
An energy transition has begun, but it's probably not the one you imagined.
It might have an ugly financial face, an authoritarian political mask or come in the guise of geographic disunion.
But it probably won't look like a solar panel or a windmill. And it won't include flying cars or undersea homes.
Although no one really knows where the globe's energy mix is headed or how it will shape our lives in the future, energy experts now offer a diversity of forecasts, stories and warnings.
Their pronouncements are both myth busting if not startling.
When economies shrink
Jeff Rubin, the former chief economist for CIBC, argues that "the new green" will not be endless arrays of solar panels or windmills but less oil and smaller economies.
Mikal Hook, an analyst at Sweden's Uppsala Depletion Group, goes further and argues that any orderly energy transition might now be impossible because renewables simply can't grow as fast as oil.
He also warns that all citizens should prepare for "high and likely volatile oil prices," and that governments should be "educating their citizenry of the risk of contraction to minimize potential future social discord."
Chris Turner, Calgary's sustainability journalist, believes that an orderly energy leap can be made but political leaders and the status quo aren't showing much interest in public transit or renewable forms of energy at least in North America.
MORE:
< http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/02/18/Big-E ... ign=180213 >
< http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/02/18/Big-E ... ign=180213 >
A great energy transition is coming. Will it mean a better day for humanity, or turmoil? First in a series.
By Andrew Nikiforuk, February 18, 2013 TheTyee.ca
An energy transition has begun, but it's probably not the one you imagined.
It might have an ugly financial face, an authoritarian political mask or come in the guise of geographic disunion.
But it probably won't look like a solar panel or a windmill. And it won't include flying cars or undersea homes.
Although no one really knows where the globe's energy mix is headed or how it will shape our lives in the future, energy experts now offer a diversity of forecasts, stories and warnings.
Their pronouncements are both myth busting if not startling.
When economies shrink
Jeff Rubin, the former chief economist for CIBC, argues that "the new green" will not be endless arrays of solar panels or windmills but less oil and smaller economies.
Mikal Hook, an analyst at Sweden's Uppsala Depletion Group, goes further and argues that any orderly energy transition might now be impossible because renewables simply can't grow as fast as oil.
He also warns that all citizens should prepare for "high and likely volatile oil prices," and that governments should be "educating their citizenry of the risk of contraction to minimize potential future social discord."
Chris Turner, Calgary's sustainability journalist, believes that an orderly energy leap can be made but political leaders and the status quo aren't showing much interest in public transit or renewable forms of energy at least in North America.
MORE:
< http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/02/18/Big-E ... ign=180213 >