Coming in from the wilderness: Looking at wood energy in a different light

摘要

By most accounts the fossil fuel era is on the rocks; production is peaking, there's blowback from the atmosphere, and we are more dependent on Persian Gulf crude than ever. Perhaps there is such a thing as "clean" coal; perhaps we can stew the rest of Alberta's bitumen out of the north with great resolve and profligate expenditures of natural gas and fresh water. But despite the heroic scale of our technology and mega-projects, conventional energy sources are becoming less, not more, tenable as time goes on.