In Part I of this series, ϳԹ Ethics interviewed Tom Butler, co-author of , a new coffee table book by the and the that shows and tells us, in graphic detail, the backstories that make up our current energy economy.
Part II provided an excerpt from the book. In it, Post Carbon Institute fellow Richard Heinberg argues that the cleanest energy is that which we don't generate in the first place. “In short,” he writes, “our task in the 21st
century is to scale back the human enterprise until it can be supported
with levels of power that can be sustainably supplied, and until it no
longer overwhelms natural ecosystems.”
In Part III, it's time to test your own energy literacy with a short quiz. Below are five terms that are used frequently in Energy. Can you define them? Answers after the jump.
1: Embodied Energy
2: Energy Slaves
3: Energy Density
4: Energy Curtailment
5: Net Energy
Some of these concepts might have slightly different definitions, based on the source, but here are the answers, according to Tom Butler.
1: Embodied energy is the total energy consumed in the resource extraction,
manufacture, transport, marketing, use, deconstruct, or dispose of materials,
consumer products, or services. The embodied energy of a snowboard, therefore,
would include the mining, logging, and extraction of all raw materials, the
energy used to manufacture it, advertise it, ship it, package it, maintain it,
and eventually recycle or dispose of it.
2: Energy slaves is a term describing the amount of human energy equivalent to
the non-human energy we use to power infrastructure, such as buildings,
transportation, etc. On average, each American commands the services of roughly
150 “energy slaves” each year, meaning it would take 150 humans, working 24/7,
to generate equivalent work as that provided by the energy
we consume in a year.
3: For fuels, energy density is the useful energy per unit volume. Fossil fuels are extremely
energy dense. For example, for the same heat output, one would need to burn
twice as much wood as coal. Liquid fuels such as heating oil contain more than
three times the energy value of wood.
4: Beyond “efficiency” (getting more work out of less
energy), an energy curtailment agenda assumes that in a post peak-oil world, a
rational society would develop an intentional, comprehensive program to simply use
less energy. In practice, curtailment policies would employ the full array of
conservation and efficiency strategies, focusing especially on eliminating
frivolous and wasteful uses of energy. Can’t we get along fine without lighted
billboards and motorized paper towel dispensers?
5: Net energy is the amount of useful energy available after accounting for
the energy consumed in its extraction, processing, and distribution.
—Mary Catherine O'Connor