25 comments on Making up the difference
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25 comments on Making up the difference
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It would be interesting to calculate EROEI at Peak Oil and then project at what point along the downslope tail that EROEI becomes one.
Perhaps we won't get a Gaussian curve afterall. Perhaps the tail will abruptly stop at some date: ER = EI.
this not only seems right to me but it links ecology and economics. In Economics 101 the competitive firm can only operate in a lens shaped region where marginal benefit exceeds marginal cost. Due to diminishing returns the cost curve always rises more steeply than marginal revenue at some point at which there is no additional net benefit. This assumes the revenue flow is intact. In predator ecology we require energy value of food intake (ER) to exceed the hunting metabolic rate (EI), which of course gets tougher as the number of predators increases. For whatever reason the dinosaurs couldn't get enough calories to sustain themselves, though a few raccoon-like critters made it. If we don't find new fuel or learn to use less we're headed the same way.