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Richard Heinberg

Richard Heinberg Quotes

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Famous Richard Heinberg Quotes

“All of the easy oil is gone and what's left is requiring more energy and money and this has an effect on everything. Our problem is that we've created an infrastructure that's so dependent on oil. As oil becomes more expensive we're going to be locked into the transportation modes that our economy depends on. So we really need to start building an alternative economy before we get caught in a trap of our own making.”

ProblemEnergyEasyEconomyBuildingTransportation
Author:Richard Heinberg
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“Surveying the available alternative energy sources for criteria such as energy density, environmental impacts, reliance on depleting raw materials, intermittency versus constancy of supply, and the percentage of energy returned on the energy invested in energy production, none currently appears capable of perpetuating this kind of society.”

KindEnergyMaterialsSourceCapableImpactEnvironmentalProductionsAvailableOilAlternativesVersusReliancePercentagesCriteriaRaw MaterialsConstancyDensityEnergy SourcesPerpetuatingAlternative EnergyPeak OilEnvironmental ImpactEnergy Production
Author:Richard Heinberg
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“If we aim for what is no longer possible, we will achieve only delusion and frustration. But if we aim for genuinely worthwhile goals that can be attained, then even if we have less energy at our command and fewer material goods available, we might nevertheless still increase our satisfaction in life.”

IfsStillsMightEarthEnergyGoalAchieveMaterialsIncreaseAimSatisfactionAvailableCommandFrustrationDelusionGoodsFewerWorthwhileNeverthelessEarth DaySatisfaction In Life
Book:The End of Growth: Adapting to Our New Economic Reality
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“The industrial civilisation is based on the consumption of energy resources that are inherently limited in quantity and that are about to become scarce. When they do, competition for what remains will trigger dramatic economic and geopolitical events; in the end, it may be impossible for even a single nation to sustain industrialism as we have know it in the twentieth century.”

KnowsMayEndsEnergyNationsImpossibleEconomicCenturyEventsResourcesRemainsCompetitionEnvironmentalDramaticQuantityConsumptionTwentieth CenturyTriggersCivilisationScarceGeopolitical
Book:The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies
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“We are about to enter a new era in which, each year, less net energy will be available to humankind, regardless of our efforts or choices. The only significant choice we will have will be how we adjust to this new regime. That choice - not whether, but how to reduce energy usage and make a transition to renewable alternatives - will have profound ethical and political ramifications.”

YearsPoliticalChoicesEnergyEffortProfoundEnvironmentalAvailableSignificantAlternativesErasEthicalTransitionRegimesHumankindUsageNew EraRamifications
Book:The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies
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