From Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society
Please note that, with the conclusion of the Year of Energy 2009, we are no longer updating this site.
You can read highlights from the Energy Symposium at our 2009 Annual Meeting and International Research Conference here, and view the speakers’ slides here.
Our series of white papers on energy is available here.
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As I mentioned in the previous post, the peak oil article is available only to subscribers… but I have permission to share the charts and figures from the paper. So here are more trends and numbers to digest! Stephanie Freese and Barbara Aulicino at Amsci prepared the graphics.
Figure 5. The values predicted by the limits-to-growth model and actual data for 2008 are very close. The model used general terms for resources and pollution, but current, approximate values for several specific examples are given for comparison. Data for this long a time period are difficult to obtain; many pollutants such as sewage probably have increased more than the numbers suggest. On the other hand, pollutants such as sulfur have largely been controlled in many countries.
April 27, 2009
The May-June issue of American Scientist includes a feature on energy! Subscribers and Sigma Xi members can read the full article, “Revisiting the Limits to Growth After Peak Oil.”
In the article, ecologists Charles A. S. Hall and John W. Day, Jr., worry that attention to peak oil and resource limitation faded after the energy crisis of the 1970’s. “Those who advocated for resource constraints were essentially discredited and even humiliated,” they write. What’s more, “there is a common perception, even among knowledgeable environmental scientists, that the limits-to-growth model was a colossal failure…”
