The Energy Show Must Go On

In order to do so, we need less complex, more resilient systems. For example, rail rather than road transport where possible.

clipped from europe.theoildrum.com In making choices about what energy systems to build, if a complex and brittle one is chosen over a less complex and more resilient one, if and when they fail, they will be less likely to cause a much more widespread failure in the other systems that society relies on. Also, a more complex and brittle energy system requires that high levels of complexity in the wider society are maintained. This could be seen as a risk in an era when the extraction rates of society’s main sources of energy, fossil fuels, are finite and are expected to go into decline during the next two or three decades and where the timing of some of the declines, particularly coal (Energy Watch Group, 2007, p4)19, is not known with great certainty.