2. Overshooting Carrying Capacity
• The Problem: We want more
energy than we have (or can easily
get).
• Solution: Get More or Use Less?
Carrying Capacity refers to the
population size of the species that
the environment can sustain
indefinitely
Overshoot occurs when
humanity's demand on nature
exceeds the biosphere's supply, or
regenerative capacity. (Catton
1980)
3. Exponential Growth
Exponential Growth occurs when
the amount that something
increases is proportional to its
current size (or 'value').
This is a result of positive
feedback.
Example: The more people there
are, the more people will be
born.
The rate or percentage increase
may be constant.
4. Exponential Growth
You can think of Exponential Growth as SPEEDING UP:
1. The amount that is added growing larger over each unit of time
OR
2. The time shrinking between each additional unit of amount
added.
5. What is Peak Oil?
• Peak Oil production (aka Hubbert’s peak):
– the point at which oil extraction reaches its highest
level. After the peak, oil production declines.
– It is also the point at which half of oil supply (for a
well, a nation, or the world) is depleted.
– Many people believe energy production from
petroleum peaked already in 2005!
6. Facts about Oil
Oil contributes to about 40 percent of energy production
and supplies 90 percent of all transportation fuel (Korowicz
2010).
A barrel of oil, which can be extracted for a dollar, generates
25,000 hours of labor. $1 = 25,000 hours of labor.
1 calorie of food requires about 10 calories of hydrocarbon
energy in the US today.
7. Facts about Oil
Up until the 1950s, the United States was the “Saudi Arabia of
oil”- it was world’s largest exporter. US
production, however, peaked in 1970 at 10.2 million barrels a
day and subsequently declined.
Ten years later, domestic oil production was still in
decline, despite the fact that four times more oil wells had
been drilled.
Currently the United States uses 25 percent of the world’s oil
but possesses only 2 percent of the world’s known reserves
8. What is Peak Oil?
• Implication: Energy will
continue to become more and
more expensive!
– This does not mean we will ‘run
out’ of oil- at some point it will take
more energy to get the oil than the oil
produces.
– We use petroleum for
everything: our
food, pharmaceuticals, transport
ation, etc.
– See http://dieoff.org
9. ‘Peak Oil’ Facts
Worldwide discovery of oil peaked in 1964.
Today, there are about 50 countries that are producing less oil today than
in the past
CHEAP ENERGY IS ESSENTIAL FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH. TODAY SUPPLY IS
SLOWING DOWN, WHILE DEMAND IS SPEEDING UP!
10. Peak Coal
• US is the "Saudi Arabia of
coal“: US is the 2nd largest
producer of coal, after
China
• Coal production (per
weight) has not peaked, it
continues to increase
annually; however, total
amount of energy
generated from coal in the
US peaked in 1998.
• 30% decline in energy
content per weight since
1955.
11. ‘Drill Baby Drill’?
• What about the oil in the Arctic National
Wildlife Preserve (ANWR)? Can’t we drill there?
• At current rates of oil consumption, the ANWR
contains enough oil to power the US for only six
months. The Energy Information Administration
has estimated tapping ANWR would lower oil
prices by about 50 cents per barrel
12. Peak Uranium
• To replace the amount
of energy we currently
get from fossil fuels
with nuclear power, we
would need to build
about 10,000 of the
largest nuclear reactors.
• World Uranium supply
would then be depleted
in a couple decades.
Fallout from Fukushima
14. Toxic Air Pollutant Releases
(Averaged) per Person per Year (1995)
United States 7 lbs/person
(12.1%)
Louisiana (30.8%) 21 lbs/person
Corridor parishes 27 lbs/person
(36.8%)
St. James Parish 360 lbs/person
(49.6%)
Convent area 2,277 lbs/person
(83.7%)
15. Consumerism
• “The world has enough
for everybody’s
need, but not for
everybody’s greed”-
Gandhi.
16. Consumerism
• Today, aside from the very poor, nearly
everyone consumes more than is necessary to
survive. Why?
17. Consumerism
• “Conspicuous Consumption”
• We are motivated not only be
interests, but also by what
Veblen calls ‘sentiments’
• Goods distinguish us from
others in a hierarchy, and also
Thorstein Veblen
show that we belong to one 1857 - 1929
group (and not another)
18. “The Treadmill of Production”
• Why are we stuck on this treadmill? Can we get
off?
19. Treadmill of production
• The “original affluent society”
• Time allocation studies suggest that a typical
adult hunter-gatherer only needs to ‘work’ for
2 to 5 hours per day!
Uncontacted Tribes, Brazil, 2009
20. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Aesthetics
• Knowledge &
Understanding
Self-
Actualize
Esteem
Belonging and Abraham Maslow
Love 1908 - 1970
Safety
Physiological
