Energy: What's the Future?

"What is a man without energy? Nothing--nothing at all. Sum all the gifts that man is endowed with, and we give our greatest share of admiration to his energy. And today, if I were a heathen, I would rear a statue to Energy and fall down and worship it!"

So spoke Mark Twain and I'm inclined to agree. But sadly, had Twain in fact reared that statue in Energy's honor, I don?t believe I'd have the energy today to fall down, or worship it. 
You see, I suffer from chronic energy depletion syndrome; my reserves just can?t combat the day-to-day drain. I spend most of my life running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Nobody realizes how much energy it takes me to simply wake up in the morning. Nobody realizes how much energy it takes to stay awake in class. And as Albert Camus once said, "Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal."

I'm one of those people. And I'm not alone. Which is why, I suppose, it's been said that America's number one energy crisis is Monday morning. Coffee our only means by which to last the day. Because we use up all our energy in spurts, on the weekends, at parties, barbecues, conferences or tournaments, and we make no provision for the work week. Now even in my lackluster, sleep deprived state I can sense parallels between human energy depletion and the problems which plague America and the world today. We're using up our energy sources too fast, and if we don't provide for the future, we'll collapse Monday morning and even Starbucks won't be enough to keep us awake.  

"Ours is the most wasteful nation on Earth," said then President Jimmy Carter. "We waste more energy than we import. With about the same standard of living, we use twice as much energy per person as do other countries like Germany, Japan, and Sweden." If that was in 1977, where do we stand today? The 3-D light-up reindeer my neighbors sported on their front lawn through December must have themselves used up twice as much energy as Sweden, never mind the rest of America. We are wastrels, we are spendthrifts. And while I'm playing the blame game, we are entirely too dependent on petroleum. 

For the past twenty odd years, we have gone through an energy crisis without an effective policy by which to deal with the crisis. We so thoughtlessly rely on imported oil, that we have made no provisions by which to conserve gasoline or other petroleum products. We have no sufficient policy by which to develop and put into use alternative energy sources. And as any Californian will tell you, we have no adequate system for public transportation.

This failure in American policy is reflected in the predictions of the US Department of Energy. Petroleum demand is expected to grow from 19.5 million barrels per day used in 1999 to 25.8 million barrels in 2020. And what do they attribute the increase to? The inadequate "transportation sector," which accounts for 70% of US petroleum consumption. 

The answer? Some think we ought to take a cue from the Chinese and go from four wheels to two. Writer S.S. Wilson is of that school of thought: "Since the bicycle makes little demand on material or energy resources, contributes little to pollution, makes a positive contribution to health and causes little death or injury, it can be regarded as the most benevolent of machines." And since we Americans are notoriously lazy, prone to obesity, and fond of cheeseburgers, employment of the bicycle would kill two birds with one stone.

But let's be honest. Bicycling is a fairly improvident mode of transportation. Doesn't allow for twenty mile commutes, doesn't protect against the rain, and probably wouldn't catch on with the skirt-wearing faction of the work force. Which leaves us back where we started. Dependent on petroleum.

"The problem," explained Dave Barry, author of Postpetroleum Guzzler, "is that we have run out of dinosaurs to form oil with. Scientists working for the Department of Energy have tried to form oil using other animals They've piled thousands of tons of sand and Middle Eastern countries on top of cows, raccoons, haddock, laboratory rats, etc., but so far all they have managed to do is run up an enormous bulldozer-rental bill and anger a lot of Middle- Eastern persons. None of the animals turned into oil, although most of the laboratory rats developed cancer."

M. King Hubbert, author of Resources and Man, would have been more than dismayed. For Hubbert believes that "the fortunes of the world's human population are inextricably interrelated with the use that is made of energy resources."

And what use has been made of our resources? We have lab. rats with cancer and no alternative energy source. Therein lies the problem. As a nation we have yet to adopt a wide variety of fuels and are therefore at the mercy of the petroleum market. "We've embarked on the beginning of the last days of the age of oil," then ARCO chairman Mike Bowlin explained, "Embrace the future and recognize the growing demand for a wide range of fuels or ignore reality and slowly?but surely?be left behind."

"It's a confused world," a wise man once sad, "We're running out of electricity -- and nobody even knows what it is." According to the American Wind Energy Association, the answer to our energy problems is simple. Wind. Who doesn't know what wind is? Wind is abundant and can supply more than three times our total electricity needs. Wind is domestic, doesn't need to be imported, and will help reduce our dependence on foreign nations. Wind is clean, avoids other "harmful fossil fuel pollutants such as mercury, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides" and will make both our air and water healthier. What's more, wind is inexhaustible. "Unlike fossil fuels or uranium," an American Wind Energy Association statement explains, "wind energy is renewable and can be used without reducing the birthright of future generations." 

Although some, like ecologist Paul Ehrlich, feel that "giving society cheap, abundant energy would be the equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun," wind energy would be easily available and beneficial to the environment. Analysts Lester Brown, Michael Renner, and Brian Halweil predict that wind energy will be the "cornerstone of the new energy economy." Their findings indicate that world wind generation grew 26% from 1997 to 1998 alone, and now that we've expanded the US wind generating capacity from California to Minnesota, Oregon, and Wyoming, the new industry will further expand in the new millennium.

 So as they say during mass at my Jesuit high school, "Let us pray." Let us invoke the words of Thomas John Carlisle, and appeal to an energy-dispensing, eco-friendly God. 
 

"Dear God, Help us to harness the wind, the water, the sun, and all the ready and renewable sources of power. Teach us to conserve, preserve, use wisely the blessed treasures of our wealth-stored earth. You, who are life and energy and blessing, teach us to revere and respect your tender world."

And while we're waiting for God's response, which many would argue will never come, we must heed the words of God's right hand man, Mahatma Gandhi, and "be the change we want to see in the world." Alternative sources of energy? We must first find internal, alternative sources of energy. It's going to take inspired, mercurial individuals to harness the winds, the sun, and the sea.

Coffee, anyone?