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Royal Society: Energy... for the future

Posted by Chris Vernon on April 4, 2006 - 5:32pm in The Oil Drum: Europe

A quick note to raise awareness of this two day meeting at the Royal Society on 10th-11th April in London.
'Energy... for the future' will pose the question: how can we supply energy for the inhabitants of Earth, sufficient to meet everyones needs, without causing serious, irreversible damage to the environment?

This is timely as we face the global challenges of addressing climate change, providing a secure and reliable supply of energy and the depletion of oil. Fossil fuels provide cheap and convenient sources of energy and no single solution can replace them. But unless we change course, developing alternative supplies of energy and address how we use it, the next generations could face dangerous climate change and major restrictions to their lifestyles and economic development with the potential for conflicts over energy supplies.

Our generation - rightly - will be blamed for knowingly squandering the planet's resources. The input for this meeting will be from leading scientists and engineers representing a whole spectrum of possible energy solutions.

The terms of reference sound encouraging accepting the depletion of oil and the programme looks interesting covering everything from fusion and hydrogen to marine, wind, demand reduction and energy efficiency. Traditional fossil fuel use is not on the agenda - reflecting the Royal Society's view that it is not a fuel of the future?

Energy... for the future

I'll be there.

Royal Society: Energy... for the future

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1 comments

kevinM on April 6, 2006 - 3:11am Permalink | Comments top
Well I do hope there is a bit more facing of
reality than we have seen at other talkfests.

I hope there will be recognition that the
energy crisis is here and now, not some time
in the future, that fission is a vague hope
that is unlikely to deliver, that hydrogen
is a complete myth and that biofuels are a
complete myth, and with rising sea levels,
marine systems are going to be fraught with
difficulty.

I hope there is going to be recognition of
the fact that a growing population and a
growing economy are mutually exclusive of
a habitable planet in the future.

If continued use of fossil fuels is not on
the agenda, that really only leaves energy
efficiency and power down to discuss. Neither
of them is currently on the radar of any
government I know of, so it will certainly
be very interesting to see a report on the
procedings when it is published.

Royal Society: Energy... for the future

PDF version

1 comments