[p2p-research] [Open Manufacturing] Addressing Post-Scarcity Pitfalls

[Kevin Carson]

On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 9:31 AM, Ryan Lanham<rlanham1963 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Local consumers in most places cannot access wind or solar in reasonable
> quantities to make personal production realistic or economical.
>
> I think small solar is a 3% at best sort of solution.  Centralized solar
> turning turbines with hot air, etc. is more realistic.  Centralized power is
> needed for industry and transportation and those aren't going away.  Yes,
> there will be efficiencies and savings, but there will also be growth.
> People in the undeveloped world are not going to agree to be poor while the
> West gets to be rich with lights, heat/AC, mobility, shipping, intensive
> mining and mineral use, etc.
>
> Nuclear has a huge future role.  It has to.  People who argue otherwise are
> simply hurting the planet--killing it.  We need power.  Nuclear is going to
> be the main source (period.)  We should fight to minimize it wherever we
> can, but it is the main source.

I think far more important than the question of what energy sources
will replace fossil fuels as the primary means for supplying energy
demand, is the fact that energy demand itself doesn't have to be
constant.  Far more important than either solar or nuclear, as a
source of "new" energy, is reduced demand.  With relocalization of
most industrial logistic chains, the widespread use of passive solar
heating and cooling design, cogeneration with industrial waste heat,
and a return to walkable communities and public transit, we could
easily reduce total energy consumption by 80%.

-- 
Kevin Carson
Center for a Stateless Society http://c4ss.org
Mutualist Blog:  Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
Organization Theory:  A Libertarian Perspective
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html