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I have been doing a lot of thinking about how society is going to change as the effects of global warming play out and we run out of fossil fuels. We have a lot of thinking to do about how we want to restructure to avoid starving people. It is going to get a lot harder to feed people.
I think the solution is to start centralizing the population around farming areas, with efficient public transportation to allow people and goods to be efficiently moved within relatively small areas. Importing food from long distances is a luxury we cannot afford. Areas of the world that cannot be used efficiently for farming should become centers for power generation (by nuclear fusion ideally), and research into such techniques. That way, any safety concerns associated with running power plants will be removed from the population, and the land will be put to good use.
The current model of people living far-flung, away from distribution centers, and having to drive to get their food, is completely unsustainable. We need to create small, localized, microeconomies that are self-sufficient in terms of food. Electric power can be transported over long distances by the use of high-voltage lines, so it is no problem to create that thousands of miles away. But goods such as food can no longer be shipped long distances, because that is the source of most of the energy expenditure associated with them.
We also need to scale back on our use of commodities; we need to consume less. Some products require special facilities to be manufactured, and if we go through them too fast, we will waste energy getting them from place to place.
On the other hand, if we have enough clean energy, that won’t really be a problem. Nuclear fusion has the potential to produce an immense amount of energy with almost no harmful byproducts. If we harness more efficient electrical engines to power our machinery, we should be able to live comfortably without having a negative impact on the planet. That balance is the key.
There is no intrinsic disadvantage to modernization. The problem arises when we ignore the natural order of things, when we forget that as the dominant species, we are in a unique position to screw ourselves and everything else over with our tremendous influence on the planet. That influence is both our greatest asset and our greatest liability, and we must tread carefully around it.
Comments
Comment from Harpo
Time: April 13, 2009 at 8:25 pm
But there are vast regions of the world, like deserts or the Antarctic, that are completely unfarmable. The need for superconductors is a good point, though. I wonder whether we will develop small and efficient fusion technology (enabling decentralized power) before better superconductors (enabling centralization).
Comment from whill
Time: April 13, 2009 at 5:27 pm
Until we have affordable superconductors, I think that power should be as decentralized as possible, due to the substantial loss in transmission using the current grid. Unobtrusive power generation, such as roof solar panels, are a good assist.
And farming is pretty much possible in all of the world, if you adapt your diet to the region.
But I like the emphasis on farming.