“Sustainability”
A new worry — is ‘Sustainability’ a catchphrase? Maybe I’ve been a little naive using it so much. I think that the problem is talking heads spouting it too liberally, but not really investing in knowing much about the different options and their long-term implications. Hopefully EnergyRush will help renew the meaning of the term as a real and quantifiable thing, or at least give it some clarity. The most relevant definition (I think) in the Oxford — in relation to energy — of ‘sustain’:
“support, bear the weight of, esp. for a long period” .
I guess, it’s all in how you see ‘long period.’ I mean, to some, ten or fifteen years is long, others see 100 years, and some don’t see an end at all…Or maybe the duration of time is not the biggest issue — maybe we should think of energy sources not only in terms of their possible length of service, but their by-products. Is even a low-emissions energy source really ‘sustainable’ for the the next 400 years? Is it the energy we need to sustain, or is it the planet itself?
–Refined gOil
