Energy, Technology and Climate: Running Out of Gas
David Goodstein
Published in New Dimensions in Bioethics, Yale University Press
We are faced with a grave crisis that may change our way of life forever. We live in a
civilization that evolved on the promise of an endless supply of cheap oil. The era of
cheap oil will end, probably much sooner than most people realize. To put this looming
crisis in perspective, and to judge its significance, it helps to start from the beginning.
Here is how it all works.
Nuclear reactions inside the Sun heat its surface white hot. From that hot surface, energy
in the form of light, both visible and, to our eyes, invisible, radiates uniformly away in all
directions. Ninety million miles away, the tiny globe called Earth intercepts a minute
fraction of that solar radiation. About 30% of the radiation that falls on the Earth is
reflected directly back out into space. That’s what one sees in a picture of the Earth taken,......
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Approximate Word Count: 6687
Approximate Pages: 26 (260 words per double-spaced page) |