{"id":57680,"date":"2021-05-05T07:03:40","date_gmt":"2021-05-05T12:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57680"},"modified":"2021-05-05T07:03:40","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T12:03:40","slug":"our-rapid-ascent-in-energy-and-resource-use-has-distorted-our-view-of-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=57680","title":{"rendered":"Our rapid ascent in energy and resource use has distorted our view of\u00a0\u201cnormal\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/03\/our-rapid-ascent-in-energy-and-resource-use-has-distorted-our-view-of-normal\/\">Our rapid ascent in energy and resource use has distorted our view of\u00a0\u201cnormal\u201d<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><strong>The new reality warns we are on a collision course with Earth\u2019s finite limits \u2014<\/strong>\u2013<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_21572\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" data-shortcode=\"caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/tom-murphy.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-21572\" src=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/tom-murphy.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 177px) 100vw, 177px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/tom-murphy.jpg 177w, https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/tom-murphy.jpg?w=142&amp;h=150 142w\" alt=\"\" width=\"177\" height=\"187\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21572\" data-attachment-id=\"21572\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/03\/our-rapid-ascent-in-energy-and-resource-use-has-distorted-our-view-of-normal\/tom-murphy-2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/tom-murphy.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"177,187\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Tom Murphy\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/tom-murphy.jpg?w=177\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/tom-murphy.jpg?w=177\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-21572\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tom Murphy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>\u201cThe delirious ascent in energy and resource use witnessed over the past few centuries has been accomplished via the rapid, accelerating expenditure of a one-time inheritance of natural resources\u2014a brief and singularly remarkable era in the long saga of human history. It has produced a dangerously distorted impression of what \u201cnormal\u201d looks like on this planet. \u2026Thus far, heeding physical boundaries has not been necessary for the most part, as the scale of human endeavors has only recently become significant in a planetary context. We are now entering into a new reality: one in which our ambitions are on a collision course with natural limits on a finite planet. It is a slow-motion trajectory that has been apparent to some for an embarrassingly long time*, but not yet acute enough to have grabbed the lasting attention of the majority. [*D H Meadows et al.<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Limits_to_Growth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Limits to Growth: A Report for the Club of Rome\u2019s Project on the Predicament of Mankind<\/em><\/a>. Universe Books, 1974]\u201d \u2014<strong>Tom Murphy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tom Murphy is an associate professor of physics at the University of California, San Diego. Murphy\u2019s keen interest in energy topics began with his teaching a course on energy and the environment for non-science majors at UCSD. Following his natural instincts to educate, Murphy is eager to get people thinking about the quantitatively convincing case that our pursuit of an ever-bigger scale of life faces gigantic challenges and carries significant risks.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/finite-planet.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-21571\" src=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/finite-planet.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 239px) 100vw, 239px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/finite-planet.jpg 239w, https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/finite-planet.jpg?w=150&amp;h=132 150w\" alt=\"\" width=\"239\" height=\"211\" data-attachment-id=\"21571\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/03\/our-rapid-ascent-in-energy-and-resource-use-has-distorted-our-view-of-normal\/finite-planet\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/finite-planet.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"239,211\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Frank White&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1620032316&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"finite planet\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/finite-planet.jpg?w=239\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/citizenactionmonitor.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/05\/finite-planet.jpg?w=239\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our rapid ascent in energy and resource use has distorted our view of\u00a0\u201cnormal\u201d The new reality warns we are on a collision course with Earth\u2019s finite limits \u2014\u2013 Tom Murphy \u201cThe delirious ascent in energy and resource use witnessed over the past few centuries has been accomplished via the rapid, accelerating expenditure of a one-time [&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":[2,3,4,7],"tags":[30675,1647,391,690,31103],"class_list":["post-57680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-citizen-action-monitor","tag-finite-resources","tag-growth","tag-risk","tag-tom-murphy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57680","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=57680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57681,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57680\/revisions\/57681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}