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Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

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Respect
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Re: Respect
Apr 01, 2012, 13:04
I think it's unsurprising that we've found no energy source more efficient than millions of years of stored solar energy that oil represents. The key thing is an equation known as the Energy Return on Energy Invested, or EROEI. When you take into account the energy required in obtaining other forms of energy, you find that the easily obtainable sources tend to be very diffuse, while the denser sources are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, both in terms of the cost of obtaining them, and the energy required to obtain them. If you used 100 barrels of oil to drill a hole that you managed to suck 80 barrels of oil out of, you'd have been better off not drilling for it in the first place.

It's estimated that to support a society as complex as Modern western Industrial Capitalist society, you need an EROEI in double figures. Simply put, order requires energy. If you expend no energy keeping your house tidy, things will quickly become chaotic, disordered, and the phenomenon is scalable.

This matters hugely, because if we do face a long and permanent decline in the amount of energy available to us, there will be less of everything for everyone.

So there are some extremely clever people looking for alternatives. If some group were to find a *something* that did match the EROEI of oil, unimaginable riches would be available to them.

Sadly, we're pushing against the limits imposed by a finite planet and the laws of thermodynamics.
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