| | Science and technology have done great good for mankind. We've more than doubled Western life-expectancy in about a single century of scientific progress. Over the next century, we may even be able to double it again (with several questionable assumptions). We've virtually eliminated many infectious diseases (e.g., smallpox) that used to eliminate us like we were going out of style or something. And we've made life on Earth luxurious.
Dr. Durr wants to take most -- if not all -- of that progress away from us. Here are excerpts from something I found online ... (emphasis added):
I divide energy into manpower, and a manpower is a quarter horse-power. If you make a calculation you will find that behind us there are 130 billion energy slaves working for the world's six billion people.
I have made a calculation of what is the limit you have to observe so as not to destroy the bio-system, and you come to a number which is about 90 billion energy slaves.
"The world's population is six billion, so that means every person is only actually entitled to 15 energy slaves. If you look at the problem, you will find it is really unfairly distributed. America for example has 110 energy slaves per person, Europe has 60, China has eight and a Bangladeshi has one. So you have really to get birth control on energy slaves."
Dr. Durr calculated that the world was presently home to about 130 billion energy slaves - 40 billion more than the world could sustain.
" People in the rich industrialized north see too many people on this earth and point south, but we should be pointing north. Which doesn't mean that the birth rate isn't a problem, but we have to leave it to the south to find the solution. In Europe we should be concentrating on getting down to 15 energy slaves per-person."
In Europe, for example, I say we have to go to one quarter of the energy we are using now. But it is very far away from the stone age, it is actually the lifestyle of a Swiss person in 1969. That's all.
"I want to create lifestyles that are very beautiful. You can have everything you really want without stepping over this limit. I don't want it enforced absolutely. But for people to have it in their mind that if they use more, someone will have to get less."
He said energy could never be completely equally distributed. " We must differentiate what is used for private use and what is used for business. " His flight from Germany to San Francisco, for example, used up a year's supply of his suggested energy slave allocation.
However, he said the benefit of sharing his thoughts on the overuse of energy with the corporate leaders attending the State of the World Forum outweighed the cost to the planet.
We crack one natural safe after another and take out its natural wealth. We call it wealth creation because we spent less money on the equipment than we spent on the safe that we cracked open. This is not a sustainable economy."
Dr. Durr said traditional economic theory viewed the earth as an infinite resource.
"We must include in our economic calculations that the Earth is finite. In this respect the Bangladeshis are in very good shape. They can increase their use of energy slaves by 15 times.
A former student of Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, Dr. Durr said he was convinced there was no place in the next millennium for either nuclear weapons or nuclear power plants.
"Human beings should only use technology which if the worst case happens, it leads to an acceptable damage. Definitely nuclear energy is not in that category. I want an industrial world where people are allowed to make errors. Because human creativity has to do with being allowed to make errors. We want an error-friendly environment."
What an anti-man position to champion!
Ed
(Edited by Ed Thompson on 3/27, 5:08pm)
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