Three items for the thread:
[1] Click on “speeches” here: http://www.crichton-official.com/
Click on “Complexity Theory & Environmental Management” Scroll down to read this and see his charts:
“...According to Jesse Ausubel of the Rockefeller Institute, industrialized nations have been decarbonizing their energy sources for 150 years, meaning we are moving away from carbon toward hydrogen. In other words, the ratio of carbon to hydrogen decreases as you go from wood and hay (1:1) to coal to oil to gas (1:4). Here is an illustration from one of his articles: [...] Ausubel expects the trend to continue through this century as we move toward pure hydrogenwithout the assistance of lawyers and activists. Obviously if a trend has been continuously operating since the days of Lincoln and Queen Victoria, it probably does not need the assistance of organizations like the Sierra Club and the NRDC, which are showing up about a hundred years too late. Ausubel’s ideas are controversial to some, but not to sites like Sustainability Now: [...]
Click on “Environmentalism as Religion”:
“I have been asked to talk about what I consider the most important challenge facing mankind, and I have a fundamental answer. The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda. Perceiving the truth has always been a challenge to mankind, but in the information age (or as I think of it, the disinformation age) it takes on a special urgency and importance. [...]
[2] The Ultimate Resource 2 by Julian Lincoln Simon
http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Resource-Julian-Lincoln-Simon/dp/0691003815
[3] Freakanomics
“Whether we should care about “Peak Oil” boils down to (1) will the cost of supplying oil jump, (2) If it does jump, by how much, and (3) how elastic is demand.” ~ Steven D. Levitt
Julian Simon
August 24, 2005, 3:10 pm
Betting on Peak Oil
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/julian-simon/
By Steven D. Levitt