{"id":38414,"date":"2018-09-28T07:25:32","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T12:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=38414"},"modified":"2018-09-28T07:25:32","modified_gmt":"2018-09-28T12:25:32","slug":"can-new-energy-technologies-save-the-planet-ask-the-sperm-whale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=38414","title":{"rendered":"Can New Energy Technologies Save the Planet? Ask the Sperm Whale"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"article__header\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__header\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<h3 data-bind=\"title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2018\/09\/26\/Sperm-Whale-New-Energy-Technologies\/\">Can New Energy Technologies Save the Planet? Ask the Sperm Whale<\/a><\/h3>\n<p data-bind=\"teaser\"><strong>The history of North American whale killing reveals the lie that clean power will save us.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<section class=\"featured-media\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"02-organisms\/article\/featured-media\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid\">\n<figure class=\"figure \" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/figure\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-img\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Analysis\/2018\/09\/25\/SpermWhaleUnderwater.jpg\" alt=\"SpermWhaleUnderwater.jpg\" width=\"960\" height=\"637\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">No one should be more skeptical of superlatives about renewable energy than the sperm whale. <span class=\"caption__media--credit\">Photo by Shane Gross, Shutterstock.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<article class=\"article__body main-col-container\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"organisms\/article\/article__body\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\">\n<div class=\"container-fluid clearfix \">\n<p>An oilman, a green techie and a sperm whale walked into a bar.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"aside hide-on-narrow-vp\" data-dev-object-descrip=\"01-molecules\/blocks\/aside\" data-dev-status=\"IN-PROGRESS\"><\/aside>\n<p>They got to drinking and, inevitably, boasting.<\/p>\n<p>The oilman looked at the whale and declared that if it hadn\u2019t been for fossil fuels, all 75 species of whales would have been hunted to extinction for oil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy industry and its technology saved your large ass.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The greenie then chipped in and said saving the whales was tiddlywinks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou oil guys might have saved a few whales, but low-carbon technologies are going to save the whole damn planet. Including oilmen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At that point the sperm whale put down his whiskey and harrumphed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIdiots. Oil accelerated the killing of whales, and green tech isn\u2019t likely going to save the planet. You two knuckleheads know nothing about energy or unintended consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And therein lies a modern energy parable.<\/p>\n<p>People generally assume that when markets run out of one resource or, in the case of whales, exterminate several species, then civilization will find a new resource that replaces the old one \u2014 the way renewables are supposed to retire fossil fuels. Right?<\/p>\n<p>But the history of whale killing tells a much more complex and nuanced story, writes U.S. sociologist Richard York in an intriguing 2017 essay titled <a href=\"http:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/full\/10.1177\/2378023117739217\">\u201cWhy Petroleum Did Not Save the Whales.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Oilmen, of course, like to think the 1859 Pennsylvania oil boom, which poured kerosene into the North American marketplace, slackened the demand for whale oil as a source of illumination.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can New Energy Technologies Save the Planet? Ask the Sperm Whale The history of North American whale killing reveals the lie that clean power will save us. No one should be more skeptical of superlatives about renewable energy than the sperm whale. Photo by Shane Gross, Shutterstock. An oilman, a green techie and a sperm [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5549,14401,21969,5499],"class_list":["post-38414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-andrew-nikiforuk","tag-clean-power","tag-new-energy-technologies","tag-the-tyee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38415,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38414\/revisions\/38415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}