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Basic Choices and Constraints on Long-Term Energy Supplies



Did y'all see the article in Physics Today?

Abstract:
> Population growth and energy demand are exhausting the world's fossil
> energy supplies, some on the timescale of a single human lifespan.

The whole article is free-for-all (at least temporarily) at
http://www.physicstoday.org/vol-57/iss-7/p47.html

I recommend it.
-- Written at an accessible level.
-- Mostly dispassionate, mostly sticks to the facts.
-- Some useful footnotes.

===============
On the down side:

Once again we observe that the energy industry uses the
word "energy" to mean something significantly different
from the standard physics energy ... something more akin
to free energy.

I suppose I can understand why a utility doesn't want to
talk about "free" energy :-) ... maybe they could call it
"useful energy", but it makes things really messy when
they just call it "energy", especially in the same
sentence with technical physics terms such as entropy,
as happens in one place in the Physics Today article.

This kind of terminological snafu drives students nuts.

I don't know how to fix it. It's like one of those
Shakespeare plays where everybody on stage is pretending
to be somebody else.....