Glenn Morton wrote:
<< While this post sounds incredibly pessimistic, I am optimistic that
something will be discovered that will allow us to avoid this crisis, like
the discovery of coal mining allowed the Rennaisance world to avoid an
energy crisis coming from the deforestation of Europe during that time. The
failure of our species to find a solution to this problem is too awful to
contemplate. Whatever it will be, it must come quickly.
>>
I did hear one historian a few years ago who was proposing that the fall
of Rome came about due to the lack of available resources of wood. His
argument was that the Mediterranean area was the primary region of commerce
where wood was needed for building ships and chariots, wood was needed for
refining metal ore in the furnaces, wood was required for making finished
metal produces such as horseshoes, swords, armour, etc., and wood was
part of the infrastructure for feeding the population (cooking, heating etc.).
Gradually, all the cedar trees in Lebanon were cut down: a grove remains
today of the great cedars that Senacherib boasted of cutting down (Is.
37.24).
He (the historian) also suggested that whereas the Romans did conquer
Britannia,
Gaul, and the Gothic teritories to expand their resources, the logistical
problems
associated with transportation of huge resources to the Mediterranean could
not
be surmounted.
I think there were a lot of reasons for Romes decline, including the more
usual positions such as lack of representation of the population at large,
a government whose infrastructure collasped due to immense corruption,
nepotism, political self interests (note: in Eastern Rome lived under almost
the same conditions but thrived for 1000 years!). I might even entertain
St. Augustine who said it was "sin", and perhaps so, but that is a bit
too general I think. Hence, I still don't find the historian's case
particularly
strong as a "single cause"; however, I do find it a compelling observation
all the same.
To go back to the main thrust of Glenn's post:
Probably fusion is a good suggesting since it doesn't create the waste
characteristic of fission reactions. It also does not dirty the atmosphere
with CO2 and NOx which is also a matter of concern.
Maybe we should not be pessimistic harbingers of doom, but neither
should we be a bunch of Pollyannas. We must think. That is possibly
why God gave us a brain.
His Grace is sufficient, and by Grace alone do we proceed,
Wayne
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