Sustainability 2.0: Eyes Wide Open
Energy is indispensable. Energy is compromise. And there is no playbook for the Age of Renewables. Let’s compromise wisely, eyes wide open.
“Wonderwerk.” Even the name of the cave seems fitting. There, about one million years ago, our homo erectus ancestors cooked their meal over a campfire. Not a wildfire, a campfire. It was planned, created, managed, and utilized for a specific purpose.
Fire control changed everything: warmth, safety, nutrition, access to harsher climates, and social and behavioral norms. The invention of the wheel was a mere game-changer by comparison; fire control changed the course of human evolution.
Fire control changed the course of human evolution. The invention of the wheel was a mere game-changer by comparison.
I’m sure there were naysayers, homo erectus ludditus (yes, I made that up) surely tisked those early adopters who accidently burned themselves or their campsites or their habitats. They were correct, of course. Fire can be both absurdly useful and absurdly dangerous. We know now that it produces greenhouse gases (GHG) and pollutes the air with particulate emissions, carbon monoxide and dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, and other nasty chemicals.
