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Re: Basic Choices and Constraints on Long-Term Energy Supplies



I am sympathetic to Rick's position.
I can recall my gen-ed undergrad class that imparted the notion that
if demand is exponential, then no matter its rate, it WILL exhaust
the supply: the rate magnitude merely fends off
the crossover between demand and supply for a number of years.

Solar, Breeder & Biomass technologies have their limits too -
but softer stops on growth, it seems. Slower, cooler, cleaner fusion
would be nice, no doubt. It is sobering to reflect that among the human
cultures that have not grown exponentially are the Australian Aboriginal,
the pre colonial Amerindian, the Saharan wandering Arabs. One supposes
they were resource-limited.
Amerinds resource-limited? seems a strange concept.

Brian W


At 11:45 AM 7/31/2004, you wrote:
But these are precisely some of the topics that come up in physics courses
that deal with important societal issues such as Energy. One of the
triggers for this whole discussion was Al Bartlett's article--haven't
gotten my issue yet but have heard him speak often. His theme is
fundamentally mathematical--understanding the exponential function and its
application to our lives. The 'PHYSICS' can help frame the questions and
can put restraints on the answers, but in the spirit of multi-disciplinary
instruction, these 'non-physics' topics are correctly a part of a good
gen-ed physics course (and should not be ignored in more rigorous courses
as well.) I don't see these discussions as out of place here.

Rick
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
rtarara@saintmarys.edu

Brian Whatcott Altus OK Eureka!