“These three concepts — gradient, density, and power density — describe the thermodynamic floor beneath civilisation. No policy, no subsidy, and no amount of determination can override them.” (Richard Lyon, below)
Energy engineer/educator Richard Lyon recently illustrated the importance of the key concept of energy density, a subject of note at MasterResource. [1] “The Physics that Demolishes Energy Policy” (March 3, 2026) is taken from Chapter 1 of his book in process.
“There is far more heat energy in a swimming pool than in a pan of boiling water,” he begins.
… Continue ReadingYou can boil an egg in the pan. You can’t boil an egg in the pool. And if you doubled the size of the pool, you’d double the energy available — and still have a cold, raw egg.
This is not a riddle.
“The world’s optimum population is less than two billion people – 5.6 billion fewer than on the planet today, [Paul Ehrlich] argues, and there is an increasing toxification of the entire planet by synthetic chemicals that may be more dangerous to people and wildlife than climate change.” (- The Guardian, March 22, 2018)
Paul R. Ehrlich was not only embarrassing wrong with his outlandish predictions, he never changed his mind except for a few throwaway lines. The following article, “Paul Ehrlich: ‘Collapse of Civilization Is a Near Certainty Within Decades’” by Damian Carrington (The Guardian: March 2018) reveals Ehrlich’s later thinking.
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A shattering collapse of civilisation is a “near certainty” in the next few decades due to humanity’s continuing destruction of the natural world that sustains all life on Earth, according to biologist Prof Paul Ehrlich.…
Continue Reading“True, Australia is ‘not reducing fast enough to achieve NSW’s legislated targets of a 50% reduction by 2030 or a 70% reduction by 2035.’ That calls for loosing or ending the unrealistic targets, which is now the climate policy for most industrial economies.”
Rob Grant, a self-described “energy transition leader” based in Perth, Western Australia, recently expressed the concern of the climate alarm community: that adaptation is the way forward, with traditional mitigation yielding. “Australia is quietly settling into a climate strategy of adaptation over abatement,” he begins, “and the temperature data says that is a bet we will lose.”
… Continue ReadingLast week’s Labor conference set no new aspiration on climate. Our Paris commitment stays the central plank, and if you assume we deliver on it, the comfortable read is “this is all Australia needs and can do.”