Climate, Energy, Economy: Pick Two

[Raúl Ilargi Meijer]

Dorothea Lange Miserable poverty. Elm Grove, Oklahoma County, OK 1936 We used to have this saying that if someone asks you to do a job good, fast and
[See the full post at: Climate, Energy, Economy: Pick Two]

[Raleigh]

Very well written and good advice. Thank you.

[alan2102]

Ilargi: “our highly complex economic systems cannot run on renewables (for one thing, the EROEI is not nearly good enough)”

The EROEI is plenty good enough. The idea that it isn’t is a relic from the golden age (?) of dieoff.com/peak-oil-doomerism, circa 1998-2008, based on data from the 1990s. The latest data shows excellent and steadily-improving EROEI, with no end in sight. Since renewables installation is largely a one-off affair (with small or negligible maintenance costs, averaged over decades), EROEI will continue climbing, probably to reach fantastic heights. But regardless: the EROEI situation right now, today, is compelling, even without further improvement.

I explained this to Chris Martenson some time back; here:
https://www.peakprosperity.com/comment/176009#comment-176009

Martenson — generally a smart guy — has the same problem: he got most of his info on renewables from old dieoff-type literature; this info is now hopelessly dated and useless. Actually, even the info that I posted at that link (above) is already somewhat dated: I posted it 1.5 years ago; it is based on studies at least 3 years old now. The situation is dynamic and EROEI keeps getting better.

Please don’t mistake what I just said as being the equivalent of “we can all relax now because renewables will solve all our problems, such as climate change”. That is NOT what I said. I said what I said. See above. Thank you.

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