{"id":55727,"date":"2020-11-22T07:37:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-22T12:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=55727"},"modified":"2020-11-22T07:37:11","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T12:37:11","slug":"the-invisible-oiliness-of-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=55727","title":{"rendered":"The Invisible oiliness of everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Invisible oiliness of everything<\/a><\/h3>\n
\n

Preface<\/strong>.\u00a0 Even a simple object like a pencil requires dozens of actions to make and dozens of objects that took energy to make.\u00a0 This is why it is unlikely wind, solar, or any other contraption that make electricity, have a positive return of energy, or energy returned on energy invested.\u00a0 If you look at all of the energy of the steps to create a wind turbine or solar panel, they don\u2019t produce as much energy as it took to make them, and certainly not enough extra energy to replace themselves.\u00a0 Besides, electricity is only about 15% of overall energy use, with fossils providing the rest transportation, manufacturing, heating, and the half a million products made from fossils as feedstock as well as energy source.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Just as fish swim in water, we swim in oil.\u00a0 You can\u2019t understand the predicament we\u2019re in until you can\u00a0see<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0the oil that saturates every single aspect of our life.<\/p>\n

What follows is a life cycle of a simple object, the pencil. I\u2019ve cut back and reworded Leonard Read\u2019s 1958 essay\u00a0I Pencil, My Family Tree<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to show the fossil fuel energy inputs (OBJECTS<\/strong>\u00a0made using energy, like the pencil, are in\u00a0BOLD CAPITALS,\u00a0ACTIONS<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0are\u00a0\u00a0BOLD ITALICIZED<\/strong><\/em>)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"pencils\"<\/a>\u201cMy family tree begins with \u2026 a Cedar tree from Oregon. Now contemplate the antecedents \u2014 all the people, numberless skills, and fabrication:<\/p>\n

All the\u00a0SAWS.<\/strong>\u00a0TRUCKS,<\/strong>\u00a0ROPE<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0OTHER GEAR<\/strong>\u00a0to\u00a0HARVEST\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>and\u00a0CART<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0cedar logs to the\u00a0RAILROAD<\/strong>\u00a0siding. The\u00a0MINING<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>of ore,\u00a0MAKING<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0of\u00a0STEEL<\/strong>, and its\u00a0REFINEMENT<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong>into\u00a0SAWS<\/strong>,\u00a0AXES<\/strong>, and\u00a0MOTORS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The growing of\u00a0HEMP, LUBRICATED<\/strong>\u00a0with\u00a0OIL<\/strong>,\u00a0DIRT\u00a0REMOVED<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0COMBED<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0COMPRESSED<\/strong>,\u00a0SPUN<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0into yard, and\u00a0BRAIDED<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0into\u00a0ROPE.<\/strong><\/p>\n

BUILDING\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>of\u00a0LOGGING CAMPS (BEDS, MESS HALLS).\u00a0SHOP<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0for,\u00a0DELIVER<\/em><\/strong>, and\u00a0COOK<\/em>\u00a0FOOD<\/strong>\u00a0to feed the working men. Not to mention the untold thousands of persons who had a hand in every cup of\u00a0COFFEE<\/strong>\u00a0the loggers drank!<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Invisible oiliness of everything Preface.\u00a0 Even a simple object like a pencil requires dozens of actions to make and dozens of objects that took energy to make.\u00a0 This is why it is unlikely wind, solar, or any other contraption that make electricity, have a positive return of energy, or energy returned on energy invested.\u00a0 […]<\/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":[11836,18788,11859,277,328,588],"class_list":["post-55727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-alice-friedemann","tag-energy-returned-on-energy-invested","tag-energy-skeptic","tag-eroei","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-oil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55727","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=55727"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55727\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55728,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55727\/revisions\/55728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}