Posts by urlyman@mastodon.social
(DIR) Post #B5DNhyNBExup6JhBSq by urlyman@mastodon.social
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#Oil201: 21/27…“Alternative energy sources will play a role in the human energy portfolio, but our current system was built around the qualities of oil.These time, land and material dimensions are almost never discussed, but they’re some of the main reasons that direct substitution is so much harder than people assume, and why there are now warships in the Persian Gulf…
(DIR) Post #B5DNi2NgL2h3X1xdnk by urlyman@mastodon.social
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#Oil201: 22/27…“So if oil is this hard to replace, what is this energy transition?We keep hearing about solar panels and wind turbines but they do not reproduce themselves. The sun and the wind are renewable, but the technology we use to harness them is best labeled ‘rebuildable’, not renewable.Because they require massive inputs of material and energy and complexity to build, and they need to be rebuilt every 20 or 30 years…
(DIR) Post #B5DNi3mX88ANsOb0Ay by urlyman@mastodon.social
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#Oil201: 23/27…“Most alternative energy tech only produces electricity, which is very important, but represents only a fraction of what fossil hydrocarbons do in the world – currently around 20%. Diesel for shipping, jet fuel, aviation, petrochemical, feedstocks, none of these have clean substitutes at scale. But beyond these limits, there’s a deeper pattern. The current popular stories of an energy transition are built upon a myth, a false narrative about the history of humans and energy…
(DIR) Post #B5DNi5uPDpeUTOIJiy by urlyman@mastodon.social
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#Oil201: 24/27…“The reality is we have never in human history fully transitioned off an energy source. We always *add*.There’s a name for this pattern. It’s based on Jevon’s paradox.When we find a more efficient way to use a resource, we don’t use less of it. We use *more*.Coal efficient steam engines didn’t reduce coal consumption. They made coal available for more things, so demand exploded…
(DIR) Post #B5DNi6mHzUknAVVLiC by urlyman@mastodon.social
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#Oil201: 25/27…“The same pattern has played out with almost every energy efficiency gain since.- LED light bulbs use less electricity per bulb, so we put them everywhere. - Fuel efficient engines made driving cheaper, so we drove more and built suburbs further out. Paradoxically, in the same way that you will spend most of your pay raise, energy efficiency doesn’t shrink our demand.It expands the bounds of what we can extract. It actually *feeds* our demand…
(DIR) Post #B5DNi7z5VOaMuUV5Ie by urlyman@mastodon.social
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#Oil201: 26/27…“This is why technological efficiency alone cannot solve an energy and resource problem.So the deeper question is about what happens when there might be less energy overall.And here’s where we are:- Cheap energy builds complex systems. - Complex systems depend on cheap energy. - When energy gets tight, complexity unravels. - Current alternatives cannot replace what cheap oil does *at the scale and speed* that our current system requires…
(DIR) Post #B5DNiBGZIrLp5ZhaSm by urlyman@mastodon.social
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#Oil201: 27/27…“In the final part of this trilogy, I’ll explain what all this means for money, for civilization, and for what comes next for us as individuals and societies living through the down slope of… the carbon pulse.”- - -Transcription ends forhttps://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/136-oil-201
(DIR) Post #B5DNiFMk3qfLnscZdo by urlyman@mastodon.social
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#Oil201 postscript.When I posted the transcript of #Oil101 yesterday, part 3 was not yet out, so I hadn’t listened to it.But I since have.It’s longer again than its preceding 2 parts, and it doesn’t have answers. It seeks to clarify the predicament we are in, in the hope that we might throw off our delusions of *more*.Where it leaves us is unavoidably really hard work. And I’m not yet decided if I will add #Oil301 to this thread
(DIR) Post #B5Jrq6tbbCPPQNPyj2 by urlyman@mastodon.social
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So far, only about 1% of the British electorate has registered an interest in having a vote on channeling water management away from dumping effluent for profit and instead into public ownership for health.Perhaps we can bump the numbers a bit, at least to the point where how not to enshittify what we drink and cook with might be debated by MPs?https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/762640
(DIR) Post #B5upboDDG04wMd9wPY by urlyman@mastodon.social
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@EUCommission which means being dependent upon ~5x more oil than the continent produces and doing *nothing to manage down demand* – on the contrary pursuing economic growth – is badhttps://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116510022295907102
(DIR) Post #B6KEYNrS7zovZiRWa0 by urlyman@mastodon.social
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Every “I’ll just ask ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini”, every LLM-generated summary, is driving data centres on a mission to “be bigger than 2,000 Walmarts, dump ‘23 atom bombs worth of energy’ into the environment every day, and terrify locals” https://www.tomsguide.com/ai/this-ai-data-center-will-be-bigger-than-2-000-walmarts-and-dump-23-atom-bombs-worth-of-energy-into-the-environment-every-day-and-locals-are-terrified
(DIR) Post #B6KEYPMgXMOiEs3yts by urlyman@mastodon.social
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…But hey, that’s no different than flying through climate breakdown, or eating meat that wastes 9 out of 10 calories to provide just 1 while polluting rivers and denuding forests.And that’s working out just fine https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116515374692163447
(DIR) Post #B6KEYQdjnRdGC3377Q by urlyman@mastodon.social
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…People are saying the scale of data centre at the top will never get built: that pitching them is just a ploy to keep capital flowing into the space.Probably. But the chips are still being fabbed and the outcome of that alone is absolutely *not fab* https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/114223366381442605
(DIR) Post #B6KEYSH7iUjPGUU59E by urlyman@mastodon.social
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…But also probably, the whole sucky thing is already sucking at fumes. And we’re just in the waiting room of the mother of all crashes https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116430466415714704
(DIR) Post #B6t6nQgWOKVCwGLDLU by urlyman@mastodon.social
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I’m on the fringes of a Claude-adjacent discussion. I’ve been abundantly clear that I want nothing to do with it. It’s being considered for a thing I’ve put some prior thinking into.Thing is, even if it works on a superficial level (or deeper), its use is antithetical to the project.Tech continues to make me want to abandon tech
(DIR) Post #B7aapA7zuOWZj0tff6 by urlyman@mastodon.social
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UK Prime Ministerial tenures since Milk-Snatcher Thatcher, approximated as lettucesKeir Starmer🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬Rishi Sunak🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬Liz Truss🥬Boris Johnson🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬Theresa May🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬David Cameron🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬Gordon Brown🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬Tony Blair🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬John Major🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬🥬
(DIR) Post #B7aapAW6Slo4vmAvEe by urlyman@mastodon.social
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…I apologise for the lettuce shouting that the above post inflicts upon users of screen readers.Here is a less shouty version with just the number of lettuces for each PM. 1 lettuce represents roughly 7 weeks of tenure.Keir Starmer: 15Rishi Sunak: 13Liz Truss: 1Boris Johnson: 23Theresa May: 23David Cameron: 46Gordon Brown: 21Tony Blair: 76John Major: 48 9 Prime Ministers, 266 lettuces and almost 36 years later the UK is still on course for an Iceberg 🤪https://mastodon.social/@urlyman/116747658730469820
(DIR) Post #B7aapAuuyVekAjmjui by urlyman@mastodon.social
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…The lesson that I would like us to take away from this is that instead of repeatedly eating rotten greens, we should elect some fresh Greens 💚[out of limp metaphors, runs for cover]
(DIR) Post #B7aapBGXg6xBFnu0cS by urlyman@mastodon.social
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…Returns to remind you of the fine googly-eyed lettuce-work from Led By Donkeys https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrlx5yxr60o
(DIR) Post #B7aapBaOUIpiFNBrYu by urlyman@mastodon.social
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…And in the wise words of Rihanna:Now that it’s rainin’ more than everKnow that we’ll still have each otherWhen the lettuce has salmonellaWhen the lettuce has salmonellaAy, ay, ayAy, ay, ay