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The Energy Development

Today I will talk about the energy development. First of all I will consider the natural energy circle, its evolution and its influence on the ecosystem. I will finalize with atomic and renewable energy chains, the development of man-made energy chains as a whole and with the notes on modern approaches to find solutions of climate issues.

Imagine the natural energy circle as a closed sequence of entities which are living organisms and their ultimate output which is resources. An anthropogenic energy chain can be attached at some point of the natural energy circle in order to consume the resources and transform them to a distinct form of matter or energy, which can also be consumed in turn, and so forth. As the result of consumption, gaps are formed in the natural energy circle that must be filled to restore the normal state of its internal processes.

The evolution of the natural energy circle can be defined as its gradual adaptation to new conditions in the ecosystem and gradual permutations in its chains under the influence of internal (natural) or external (anthropogenic) forces. The internal forces arise as the result of permanent interaction between the entities inside of the ecosystem. The external forces arise as the result of anthropogenic activities or interaction between ecosystems.

An anthropogenic energy chain is complete, if its ultimate output is returned to the natural energy circle to supply it with the matter required to restore the normal state of its internal processes. Think of it as a kind of branching of the natural energy circle. If the far leg of branch is not planted in the natural energy circle, it triggers a chain of permutations in the natural energy circle. A permutation of the natural energy circle causes the ecosystem to change, because of intrinsic interconnectedness. Thus it drives the anthropogenic evolution of the ecosystem.

As we know, the rate of resources consumption depends on the needs growth rate. The needs growth rate is primarily derived from the population growth rate that predetermines living space needs, energy needs, food needs, water needs, etc. During the last two centuries until now, the rate of resources consumption has been growing rapidly. The period is also characterized by different races – economic, space, armaments, nuclear etc., but the race cannot secure the development of the healthy social ecosystem. It ultimately leads to overheating, from the economic and social standpoints, followed by collapses and crises.

I can compare the economic and social health with the health of the body. The internal temperature of your body, which secures normal metabolic processes and gradual development of the healthy body, is a constant. I hope you would not bet on your capability to accelerate your normal temperature in order to earn a couple of greenbacks – it will ultimately destroy your organism, because the normal metabolic processes will be disrupted. You will end up paying much more than greenbacks to recover. You task is to secure the stability of the normal temperature and prevent any deviations, both up and down. The same holds true for the development of the healthy social ecosystem. For example, from the economic standpoint it is about maintaining constant prices and constant amount of the growth domestic product. The economic growth must be driven by society needs, not buy reckless competition, speculations and economic races.

The economic races, the financial numbers races, not backed by firm society needs, will ultimately lead to crises, collapses and reckless wasting of resources. If you do not treat your body as the once-and-for-all entity, if you do not care about it, you will collapse. If you do not treat the social, economic and natural ecosystems as the once-and-for-all entities, if you do not preserve their gradual growth by avoiding reckless accelerations, they will collapse. Trees do not grow up to the sky and they grow gradually with the constant pace. Any acceleration does not allow it to develop the firm in-between structures that will hold the weight of the tree crown.

With this regard, it is worth to stop by the socialized way of thinking. It is the person’s capabilities to develop the coherent world view by means of sound comprehension of different concepts (natural, social, financial, economic, psychological, technological, spiritual, etc.) and their interconnectedness in the social and natural ecosystem. It is expressed by person’s abilities to generate coherent, constructive and complete social ideas and then gradually implement them by means of appropriate toolsets (natural, social, financial, economic, psychological, technological, spiritual, etc.). Basically, the person as an integral component of the social and natural ecosystem is in the cornerstone of the socialized mind.

The development of integrated man-made energy chains does not assume races. The reasonable application of technologies can help to speed up the implementation process and make it more efficient, but it must not fall a prey to the competition mania – armament races, nuclear races, space races, etc. The competition mania stems from the natural animal habits, has the sexual ground and develops in human beings in the advanced form of reckless wishes to dominate the opponent and take control over its territory, resources and society by any means. The reckless races fall a prey of their speed – they ignore obvious long-term threats that undermine the development of healthy social ecosystem. The reckless races and competitions exhaust resources and undermine the health.

As to atomic energy chains, it is an example of the disintegrated man-made energy chain. Casting aside the option of utilizing the toxic waste to create weapons of mass destruction (I wonder, will the humanity ever create weapons of mass creation?), an atomic energy chain consumes but does not fill in the gap by returning its ultimate output to the natural energy circle in the proper form. What we have is tones of buried or sunk waste toxic materials which trigger permutation or collapse of different natural turnover circles.

Before acquiring and recklessly consuming some stuff, we must first find out how to back the ultimate output to the ecosystem without causing disruptive changes of its turnover circles. Before employing resources, we must find out what feasible side effects can take place in the ecosystem. Simply speaking, we must think from the end – not “how to consume resources and provide something valuable for us in order to dominate the society?”, but “how to use the resources to develop the society gradually and to return the ultimate output to the ecosystem without disrupting its turnover circles?” The healthy society cannot exist and survive without the healthy ecosystem.

If there is some stuff in the ecosystem, it does not mean that we can strip it off and be sure that both the natural energy circle and the ecosystem are not disrupted. It will definitely trigger a chain of permutations to fill in the gap. The environmental side effects can be such as the landscape reformation, temperature adjustment, etc. Unfortunately, there is no way to restore the old balance, unless you turn back the time.

Though the natural permutations of the ecosystem cannot be stopped, the side effects of anthropogenic permutations can be at least mitigated, if not avoided. It is necessary to return to the ecosystem the stuff, which can be consumed by living organisms of the ecosystem, as it is in the natural energy circle. Of course, the reprocessing can take decades and centuries, but the key point is that the natural reprocessing engine will be engaged to rebalance the natural energy circle.

As to renewable energy chains, based on principles that underlie the natural energy circle, the main concern here is the natural resources – the rare Earth metals. Although disruption of the natural energy circle takes place, it may cause fewer side effects, than the conventional energy resources such as oil and coal.

The second concern is conventional – the needs growth rate, thus the rapid depletion of rear metal deposits with appropriate economic consequences. Another concern is about the electronic waste, or e-waste, and its utilization. There is the need to either return the recycled e-waste to the ecosystem in the form which is suitable for its natural reprocessing, or to develop facilities that can recycle e-waste and extract materials that can be reused to develop new products. It can help to reduce usage of the rear Earth metals to the certain extent.

As to the general principles of energy development, the key issues that must be addressed are: comprehension of the natural energy circle, its principles and interconnectedness; comprehension of how to properly return anthropogenic outcomes back to the ecosystem to minimize side effects and allow for their consumption by living organisms; leveraging principles underlying the natural energy circle to create seamlessly integrated man-made energy chains and secure the reasonable branching of the natural energy circle.

Finally, I have notes on modern approaches to mitigate the anthropogenic side effects. With this regard, it is important to mention the monetized way of thinking. It is expressed as person’s inclination to measure each and every by means of financial numbers and material values. The monetized mind is intrinsic in bankers, financiers, economists and other people of the financial world. The key characteristic of the monetized mind is that it places material values and financial numbers in the heart of the Universe and uses them to measure the social wealth. It ignores and neglects the true social values at worst or represents them as numbers and percentages at best.

In practice and in decision making process, the monetized mind is developed in using financial numbers and values to make the ultimate decision. It is driven by the economic added value. The social added value is absolutely ignored and neglected. And this is the key difference between the monetized mind and the socialized mind – the latter holds the social added value in the heart of decision making process. If you think that monetized mind is the top level of perfection and it drives successful development of the social ecosystem, then I have to remind you that in the early and middle ages the religionized mind was considered as the top level of perfection and key factor of the social development. And it led to religion wars and campaigns against pagans. The monetized mind is just another stage of mind development, and it is still underdeveloped mind.

When monetized mind dominates the society, none of the social added value can been created but only different races, bubbles and troubles. So until the solution will be measured in terms of financial numbers, the development of social  ecosystem will be stalled. Once again, the social development is not measured by material wealth and financial benefits only. The finance has been created to secure the accounting, transformation and pricing. It is like a hummer – it must facilitate the social value creation and must not drive it. When it is applied improperly, it can destroy any value. Hopefully, the humanity will develop the socialized mind one day and, hopefully, the Earth will still be there, where it is now, when it happens.

Going back to the current approaches to mitigate the anthropogenic side effects, I think, now you should comprehend: the longer solutions are driven financially and measured solely by financial values, the harder it is to create the true social added value. Just take a look at the carbon market approach. What is in its heart? It is an example of financially driven solution elaborated by monetized minds. It will never solve the stockpiled problems, which it is supposed to solve. Unfortunately, nowadays we are approaching the financial black hole that will ultimately swallow the social and natural ecosystem, if we pass the event horizon. Moreover, monetized minds are inclined to use different antisocial and dirty approaches to get higher profit margins, to earn more money, to banish competitors and to gain more market share (see foregoing notes on the competition mania).

The socialized solution is pretty simple and it lies in gradual correction of errors and miscalculations of the industrialization era and reckless races of the past. It lies in revising the role of finances in the social ecosystem. It lies in the implementation of energy solutions based on the principles that I highlighted above. It lies in taking the social added value as the cornerstone, not the economic added value. I truly believe that there are hundreds of valuable and socialized ideas in the community on how to start solving accumulated energy issues and implement the proper solutions to correct the errors of the past – to correct the errors made by monetized minds.

But since the financial numbers, return on investments, profit margins and breakeven periods of socialized solutions, which create the long-term social value, are not good enough to gain attention of monetized minds, they are unclaimed. Instead, the short-sighted and financially sound solutions are implemented, which do not create the long-term social value but provide high margins, have small payback periods and high return on investments. That is why nowadays we are inclined to focus on financial risks, not on social and ecosystem risks.

As the result, we approach closer to the event horizon of the financial black hole. The trees do not grow up to the sky and the ecosystem has not been created in 3 years. We must learn to measure solutions by the social added value and to focus on social and ecosystem risks. We must learn to apply financial and economic measures to control and monitor the health state of the social ecosystem. We must not consider them as the key factors of the social and natural ecosystem development. Numbers do not nurse you and the sound social and natural ecosystem.