I’ve long suspected that currencies are really just units of measurement convertible to the joule (or calorie).
That would be interesting - but then how to rectify the fact that so many currencies have different values?
All poverty is energy poverty
261–270 of 466 posts
Re: All poverty is energy poverty
#262On this: > "There's probably about 3 million households in Rwanda, and a vanishingly small number have a fridge. A refrigerator uses about 2 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy per day, so if we were able to get one into every household, that would add about 2 billion kWh (2 terawatt-hours, or tWh) to Rwanda's annual energy usage. That's about as much energy as there is contained in 1 million barrels of oil — and fully on…
For a 2.5 kW solar system would cost somewhere around $2-5K USD and the 5kWH battery would also cost $2-5K USD. I don’t think the average Rwanda citizen has $5-10K available to install just enough power to run their fridge.
Well that system would produce maybe 9X what the fridge needs so you'd have a lot of extra power for other uses, like AC, lights, cooking, online gaming...
Re: All poverty is energy poverty
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
Free markets require a government, and a government acts as guarantor of the rights needed for the free market to function. A free market is not a market without a government.
Some form of government exists in any place on Earth - lest that territory is claimed by some other government. Yet, a large number of such entities are unable to guarantee those rights. The gap between the minimum common denominator of a state - ability to claim and hold a territory - and the stable an advanced state is made up by inclusive political institutions.
You can have free markets without inclusive institutions. Free markets require the government to guarantee rights to do what one wants to do, as long as it does not harm others. It also requires a government to enforce contracts and property rights. It requires equality under the law.
Note that when I say "requires" I don't mean absolutely. The closer to this a society is, the more free market it is, and the better the free market performs.
Re: All poverty is energy poverty
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
It all being about IQ is truley the archetypical HN comment.
What's your take on the capacity the deficiency of which prevents us, as a species, from making right choices that are going to improve the well-being of everyone? E.g. from harvesting abundant energy our star rains on our planet, when we already have the technologies to capture it? Are we lacking kindness? Virtue? Faith? Strength?
If we were smarter we would just exploit each other/“the Earth” harder because we use our intelligence for selfish and short-term gain.
So yes we lack kindness to put it mildly.
Re: All poverty is energy poverty
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Interesting to see the comment thread digging into all sorts of criticism of the article (is it 2 kWh / fridge? Or 1.1? Should the author discuss renewable?) Hear hear. The point is, for those of us living in developed countries, is that all wealth is energy wealth. The western way of life is totally dependent on an abundance of cheap energy. When energy runs out, or becomes significantly more expensive, it's game…
EROI is a physical measure, it doesn't deal with price at all so I don't get what it has to do with your first paragraph?
It is rather an economic measure to my understanding. Lower EROI will tend to raise energy prices. According to the Wikipedia article, it has been argued that falling EROI has been responsible in part for the collapse of the Roman empire. It has also been linked to inflation.
Re: All poverty is energy poverty
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure "collective intelligence" gives the right feel. We have the intelligence, we're just organised by a few people who have power directing labour towards making those few people even more insanely rich, whilst many people continue without direction and a larger few attempt to direct resources towards the benefit of the majority. Maybe intelligence is about organisation (of neurons) but still, organisation t…
but we dont have the intelligence even this site filled with supposedly smart educated individuals is filled to the brim with prejudices; jingoism; hate; intolerance; short-term thinking and huge cognitive blind spots
If this site is filled with high-IQ individuals then that just proves how limited intelligence is. You need more traits.
Re: All poverty is energy poverty
#267Earlier quoted context omitted.
We do have the energy. The US spends enough energy on transportation that the entire world could have refrigeration. The US spends 28% of total energy consumption on transportation. 93.33 Quadrillion BTUs x .28 / 3142 (BTUs per kWh) / 365 (days per year) = 22.8B kWh per day. BEV vehicles are 5x more efficient than ICE vehicles. We could have the same standard of living and just not use gas-powered vehicles and save ~…
What is more efficient than all the cars is electrified rail. That is an order of magnitude more energy efficient, more if you can manage to get near capacity high frequency trains. A lot of our energy expenditure is lifestyle satisfying. Asia and the better cities in Europe demonstrate you can build dense cities with excellent transit as an alternative to car dependency, but the US fairly universally rejects it from…
>> We could do a lot of good for the world just stopping our out of control need to drive cars everywhere and for everything
You are absolutely right, zero emission private aircraft would be much better. Let's build a world where everyone can have that if they want instead of placing nihilistic limits on things.
Re: All poverty is energy poverty
#268Earlier quoted context omitted.
> When energy runs out, or becomes significantly more expensive, it's game over for developed countries. Western society is inefficient at a macro level, even though it may seem efficient from the financial perspective of a single company or an individual. People cover huge distances to work. Companies are moving goods, components and people from all over the world. People change jobs (losing focus) and their residen…
> even though it may seem efficient from the financial perspective of a single company or an individual The national highway system and 1950s’ surburbanisation are top-down policy choices, not emergent behaviour.
The national highway system was a military not economic or social policy designed to allow for easy transport of troops in the event of a way. That is why many cities have large beltways that surround them, the idea being that if a city is nuked the highway is outside the blast radius.
Re: All poverty is energy poverty
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
Solar and wind have so far not been nearly adequate to charge existing EVs, let alone what would be necessary if we all converted to EVs. Given the reluctance to expand nuclear power, we're going to be charging EVs with fossil fuels for a long time.
>> we're going to be charging EVs with fossil fuels for a long time Even if you never used wind, solar, nuclear, hydro, etc. then you’d still be ahead in the BEV case. An oil power plant has around 42% thermal efficiency. A gas one 50%+ an ICE is only up to 35% but in the US it’s significantly lower on average. Neither of which have tailpipe emissions in populated areas unlike ICE. But we do also use wind, solar, nuc…
> Even if you never used wind, solar, nuclear, hydro, etc. then you’d still be ahead in the BEV case.
Yes, but not by much.
A coal power plant averages 33% efficiency. Gas is 42%. Source: google
> Neither of which have tailpipe emissions in populated areas unlike ICE.
CO2 doesn't care where it's emitted.
> But we do also use wind, solar, nuclear etc as power sources for BEV.
And nowhere near the power needed if everyone switched to EVs.
Re: All poverty is energy poverty
#270I’ve long suspected that currencies are really just units of measurement convertible to the joule (or calorie).
And, perhaps equivalent, I've long suspected that all wealth ultimately comes from the earth.