The word "anthropocene" is a term coined by ecologist
Eugene Stoermer and popularized by the Nobel Laureate atmospheric
chemist Paul Crutzen. (1) It is an informal geologic chronological
designation that serves to cover human activities that have had an
impact on the global ecosystem. A more recent designation by Mark Lynas
identifies humankind as "the God species." (2) In a previous
article in Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, (3) the author
reminded the reader that the dazzling light shed by science has led to
techno logical achievements unequaled in human history. The successes,
which bear on nearly every aspect of human endeavor, have eclipsed
contributions from the humanities.
In the optimism of the Enlightenment, technology assumed an exalted
position in Western societies. In fact, science and technology have
become the twin gods of the past century and no doubt will continue to
remain entrenched in their lofty positions throughout the twenty-first
century.
Technological optimists do not fret about the "two-edged
sword" of technology, namely, the environmental, social, aesthetic,
and spiritual impact on modern civilization. Most techno logical
optimists-and apparently all economic determinists-believe that the
boundless potential of human intellect will overcome problems of
physical limits, thus making the earth's physical resources
essentially inexhaustible. Edward Teller wrote, "Technology has
opened the possibility of freedom for everyone." (4)
Nonetheless, archaeological evidence tells us that whole
populations have disappeared due to the exhaustion of accessible
resources. The long-running debate in journals and in the media between
economist Julian Simon of Harvard University and bioscientist Paul
Ehrlich of Stanford University included wagers over evidences supporting
their convictions. (5) Simon cited historical evidence to argue that
human ingenuity will remove all limits to growth, whereas Ehrlich
insisted that we are on a course of resource exhaustion and ecological
catastrophe. Their wager was settled in Simon s favor during his
lifetime. But today the scale of human activity is so large that the
impact on the earth's systems is becoming global, and recovery
times could be measured in centuries, requiring a careful life-cycle
assessment of all activities. Critical among these activities are the
increasing global demand of energy and the earth's dwindling fossil
fuel supplies. The curves shown in figure 1 represent the estimated
availability of all known fossil fuel sources worldwide over two
centuries, plotted against the rising world demand of energy. Although
the data shown in figure 1 were prepared in 1985, there have been no
dramatic changes in these predictions over the past twenty-five years.
Five Converging Factors
Over the past decade, five converging trends have emerged that are
beginning to shape the energy future of this country and of the world.
(6) These five trends are as follows:
1. World Energy Demand Growth. The world energy demand rate shows a
steady, average upward trend of 2%, with China and India leading the
developing countries. If we continue exploiting our nonrenewable
resources, such as fossil fuels, this will inevitably lead to a global
crisis in mid century (barring the economically and technologically
successful extraction of oil/gas from vast oil shale deposits). The
United States constitutes only 5.5% of the world's population but
consumes 26.5% of the world's energy. What will happen if China and
India, which together constitute 35% of the world's population,
attain the same level of prosperity by midcentury?
2. Global Environmental Awareness. Accidents such as the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant disaster of 1986, the more recent catastrophe in
Japan, the 2009 oil spill in the Gulf, and a factor-of-three increase in
greenhouse gases in our atmosphere since the start of the Industrial
Revolution have created something akin to an ecoshock. As responsible
stewards of planet Earth, it is high time for everyone, and most of all
the ASA members, to start looking at renewable technologies to pro vide
a significant portion of our energy budget to fulfill our future energy
needs.
3. Energy Security. Security risks associated with the unequal
distribution of fossil fuel resources throughout the world pose major
destabilization threats. Renewable energy resources on the other hand
(solar, wind, biomass, mini-hydro, organic waste utilization, and
geothermal) are quite equitably distributed, with one or more of these
resources available to every country in the world. In addition, the
distributed nature of renewable technologies provides an inherent
security against terrorist attacks. Large power stations operated by
fossil fuels or nuclear power plants are vulnerable to sophisticated
terrorist attacks.
4. New Energy Technology Options. The new emphasis placed on
alternate energy resources and serious efforts at energy conservation in
developed countries, and even in developing countries, has led to the
creation of new technologies such as more efficient gas turbines, better
insulation of buildings, energy-efficient appliances, and a number of
renewable technologies (such as solar hot water, run-of-the-river small
hydropower plants, wind farms). All these are becoming economically
viable and have begun to make a noticeable impact on the world's
energy budget.
5. Increasing Business Interest. Power production in the
electricity sector, fuel production in the transportation sector, and
thermal energy applications together have become a trillion-dollar
business throughout the world. All this has led to a competitive market
and opened up potentially lucrative business opportunities in the
world's energy sector, including the development of renewable
technologies.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
To repeat, the convergence of these five trends mentioned above has
given renewable energy technologies a significant boost as an
economically feasible alternative to fossil fuels and nuclear power.
These technologies can provide greater independence to countries devoid
of fossil fuel resources; they will stand for a cleaner alternative; and
finally, they will provide greater energy security against sophisticated
terrorist attacks. For these reasons, the European Council in March 2006
called for European Union (EU) leadership on renewable energies and
asked a commission (established by the EU) to produce an analysis of how
best to expand renewable energies over the long term, for example, by
raising their share of gross inland consumption to 15% by 2015. (7) The
European Parliament, by an overwhelming majority, called for a 25%
target for renewable energies in the EU's overall energy
consumption by 2020. To this end, the commission in 2006 prepared the
framework for a renewable energy road map for all EU countries to employ
as part of their ten-year strategy for achieving these targets.
Similar initiatives have been taken by Australia, Russia, and the
USA. For example, in the USA, the Solar America Initiative (SAI) is part
of the Federal Advanced Energy Initiative, whose purpose is to
accelerate the development of advanced photovoltaic materials-with the
goal of making it cost competitive with other forms of renewable
electricity by 2015. (8) Other countries, such as Georgia, Turkey, and
even Azerbaijan and Iran, have also started to pay serious attention to
renewable energy, even though they are major producers of oil and gas.
Both eastern and western European countries have responded to this
initiative, and their road maps can be found on the internet. It is
beyond the scope of this article to provide a comprehensive review of
all these road maps. However, it will be instructive at this point to
look at two small countries, Armenia and Switzerland, as they look ahead
to the coming decades in an attempt to meet their energy needs with
minimum reliance on imported fuels. The reasons for selecting these two
countries and not others are as follows:
1. The author was involved in preparing a road map for Armenia,
based on the strategic plans for energy production in Switzerland by
2050;
2. Both are small countries with no fossil fuel reserves;
3. Both rely heavily on large hydropower for electricity
generation;
4. Switzerland is a developed country, whereas Armenia is
borderline between developed and developing country, often characterized
as a "misdeveloped" country (under the Soviet System);
5. The political climates of Armenia and Switzerland are very
different from each other in dealing with renewable technologies;
6. Switzerland ranks as one of the least corrupt countries, whereas
Armenia ranks as one of the worst;
7. Finally, Armenia considers itself a Christian country in the
Orthodox tradition dating from AD 301, and Switzerland is serious about
their Reformed and Roman Catholic tradition.
Before we go into the details of describing the two road maps, it
is important to define what is meant by alternative and/or renewal
energies and to take a look first at conservation and energy efficiency
before finally turning our attention to renewable energy resources.
The Terms Used--Alternative Energy versus Renewable Energy
Alternate or alternative energy is a term used to describe all
energy sources other than energy from fossil fuels. Alternate energy by
definition includes nuclear energy and fusion energy in addition to
renewable energy sources.
Renewable energy, on the other hand, deals with the sun, wind, and
water as the primary sources. Some add geothermal energy and energy from
organic wastes to the list (geothermal can be considered renewable when
used as a "hot-dry-rock" system in which water is injected
into the rock formation through a central well, and steam is obtained
from adjoining production wells). Renewable energy sources can lead to
technologies via two separate paths (see figures 2-4). The first path
(figure 3) is called thermoconversion. When heat is absorbed as by
materials such as solids, liquids (e.g., water), or gas (e.g., air),
then thermoconversion leads to solar thermal power, hydropower, wind,
waves, and ocean currents. The second path (figure 4) is called
photo-conversion that depends on light from the sun (electronic
excitations rather than molecular excitations) and leads to photovoltaic
power, photo-electro-chemistry, photosynthesis (which is responsible for
all plant life), and synthetic chemical compounds that can store solar
energy.
Both diagrams exhibit the steps that each conversion path takes
from a primary process to a primary product, followed by the specific
technology and finally to the useful product. The two morphologies show
the wide range of basic and applied sciences involved in the development
of renewable energy technologies. (9)
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]
Conservation and Efficient Use of Energy
The National Renewable Energy laboratory prepared a chart for
global energy versus wealth relationship in 2002 (figure 5). What is
significant in this figure is the apparent correspondence between GDP
and Energy Consumption for each country: the higher the GDP, the higher
the energy consumption. It is an accepted fact that all developing
countries have the desire to reach the level of GDPs of the developing
countries. Should that happen, countries such as China, which has
already moved up the chart toward Japan, the USA, and Europe, could
eventually exhaust most of the world's oil and gas resources,
unless they too move toward well-planned conservation and
energy-efficiency measures and follow the targets set by the European
Commission. Needless to say, conservation measures and efficient energy
use are less expensive to achieve than developing a new renew able
energy technology. For example, retrofitting a building to make it
energy efficient, whether residential or commercial, will cost about $2
per watt as com pared to a cost of $3 to $5 per watt for small hydro
stations, providing solar thermal heating or generating electricity from
wind. (In 2010 dollars, costs for new energy range from $3 to $5 per
watt.) Building energy efficiency measures include, but are not limited
to, proper insulation, electric lighting that uses compact fluorescent
halogen bulbs, and efficient electric appliances.
[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]
Priority sectors in which energy savings can be obtained include
production and distribution of electricity, irrigation and water supply,
electric lighting, transportation, and food production. In industry, for
example, losses in an electricity value chain (described as the sequence
from energy production to energy consumption) using fossil fuels can
amount to 80% between primary energy production and final industrial
production. These losses can be reduced to 60% or less when using
efficient gas turbines and smart grids that include demand-side
management.
The Swiss Plan from 2010-2050
Historically, Switzerland's longest-serving and most important
source of renewable energy has been hydropower; the same is true for
Armenia. But the new renewable resources, including solar thermal, solar
photovoltaic (PV), wood, biomass, wind, and geothermal, also play an
increasingly important role in today's Swiss energy mix. For
economical reasons, wood, biomass, solar thermal hot water, small
hydropower, and wind are available now to a modest extent and, in some
cases, are also economically attractive. The potential for PV and
geothermal is large, but only in the longer term (2030). One of the
goals of Switzerland's energy policy for 2030 is to increase the
proportion of electricity production from renewable energy by an amount
equal to 10% of the country's present-day electricity consumption.
Since 2007, approximately 55.6% of the overall electricity production in
Switzerland comes from renewable resources, with hydropower providing
53.6% of this amount and the rest coming from other renewable resources,
of which the largest portion is biomass (wood and biogas). It should be
noted that 39% of the electricity production comes from three aging
nuclear power plants which the Swiss have decided to phase out by 2025.
Three main forms of renewable resources are considered:
1. Electricity from hydropower, wind power, PV, and biomass;
2. Thermal energy from heat pumps, solar thermal heat, geothermal,
and biomass;
3. Transportation from gas and liquid fuels extracted from biomass.
The Swiss calculate that their electricity consumption will
increase by about one quarter to one third and that, by the middle of
this century, a certain share of electricity production from fossil
fuels will remain inevitable. This will be the case even in the event
that the road map's recommendation of 10% from PV by midcentury is
implemented. This is not the case for thermal requirements, which are
anticipated to fall by 40% by 2035 compared with current levels. With
the implementation of the road map, it will be possible to cover 40% of
heat requirements with wood, biomass, and solar thermal by midcentury.
Besides electricity, the second major problem is the energy policy
in the transport sector. Although the Swiss anticipate the energy demand
to decrease by a third by 2035 (more efficient cars and public
transport), only 16% of transport energy requirements can be met by gas
and liquid fuels extracted from biomass--unless, of course, an
all-electric vehicle system is instituted in the country by 2035.
However, it is noteworthy that Switzerland is very seriously
considering instituting a drastic cut in energy consumption by 2050,
down to 2,000 watts per capita, which represents a major cut from the
3,000 watts per capita at the current level of energy consumption.
Energy supply that would rely mainly on indigenous sources of renewable
energy is only possible given a far lower level of energy consumption
than today. Thus, a "2,000-watt society" is being promoted at
the level of the Swiss Department of Environment, Transport, Energy, and
Communication. (10) To accomplish this reduction in energy consumption,
an effective energy policy is required now, and in the years to come, to
ensure, in the long term, an adequate, economical, and ecologically
friendly supply of energy based on renewable sources.
The Armenian Strategy for the Next Decade (2010-2020 and beyond)
Unlike Switzerland, Armenia to date has not yet been ready to adopt
renewable energy technologies (RETs) for its energy budget. It has no
fossil fuel resources in the country and relies on nuclear power for 35%
of its electricity production and on large hydropower for 30%, not
unlike Switzerland. The balance comes from fossil fuel imports. In
December 2010, the World Bank selected the Danish Energy Management to
work with a team of Armenian engineers and scientists to prepare a
ten-year strategy plan for bringing renewable technologies to Armenia.
The road map was prepared along the same lines as the requirements set
forth by the EU Parliament for their member countries, and as was done
in Switzerland. The team completed its plan in June 2011, and presented
it to all branches of the government.
The plan showed that the country can group RETs into three
categories, as in the Swiss case:
1. Electricity production, from small hydropower (less than 10 MW
per run-of-the-river project), wind power, PV, and biomass;
2. Thermal energy using heat pumps, solar thermal heat, geothermal,
and biomass;
3. Transportation using gas and liquid fuels extracted from
nonfood-related biomass (such as stover, switchgrass, algae); the
eventual use of hydrogen fuel cells.
Findings of a comprehensive review of the renewable energy
potential in Armenia have ranked small hydro power using
run-of-the-river sources, and solar hot water, as the most advanced and
economical sources for Armenia in the short- and mid-term (by 2016),
followed by grid-connected wind farms and the use of heat pumps by 2020
(see figure 6). The wind farms will be located in several mountain
passes with the potential of supplying 20% of the electricity for the
country. PV and cellulosic biomass from Jerusalem artichokes planted in
arid regions will become economical after 2020. Although the prediction
for the growth of RETs is modest in Armenia, their use can increase
five-fold by 2020 (not including large hydro power), forestalling the
necessity for another nuclear power plant. However, Armenia compares
very poorly with Switzerland in energy conservation and in energy
efficiency. Japan is ranked the most efficient user of energy among
developed countries. The road map prepared above for Armenia makes it
clear that Armenia needs to increase its energy conservation and
efficiency before it invests large sums in RETs.
Sadly, unlike Switzerland, Armenia has no formal plan for reducing
energy consumption by 2020. In addition, implementing large scale RETs
in Armenia, as with any other country, depends more on political
measures than on technical capabilities. Furthermore, unlike
Switzerland, which has decided to phase out their existing three nuclear
power plants by 2025, the issue is complicated by the fact that the
Armenian government is keen on replacing the present, aging nuclear
power plant with new 1,000 MW ones, using Russian technology. The
location of these plants is on earthquake fault lines which require
special design features to secure their safety, thus making the proposed
nuclear power plants a more expensive project than using RETs by a
factor of three or more.
To be diplomatic in our approach, the author and a team organized
by the Danish Energy Management presented two scenarios to the Armenian
government. One scenario was with a new nuclear power plant; the other,
without one. If a nuclear power plant becomes a reality after 2020,
there will be excess electricity which then can be used to power
electric cars in Armenia and/or generate hydrogen for cars running on
hydrogen fuel cells. Armenia has eliminated tramways, but still uses
electricity operated buses. Unlike Switzerland, Armenia has very limited
rail transport and is too poor to invest funds in an extensive rail
system. (11)
[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]
Nuclear Power and RETs
Nuclear power has been an important part of the world's energy
budget. Its advantages are several. It is nonpolluting, uses
ten-thousand-fold less fuel (uranium or plutonium vs. fossil fuels) and
makes an excellent base-load power plant. However, unless built with
strict safeguards, the risks could be catastrophic in the event of a
serious accident as, for example, the Three Mile Island accident, the
Chernobyl event, and the recent Japanese tsunami. In addition, disposal
of the rapidly accumulating high and low-level radioactive wastes is
becoming the "Achilles' heel" of the industry, along with
the ever-existing fear of nuclear weapons proliferation (namely, the
concern that so-called rogue states such as North Korea or Iran may go
nuclear).
People are often incredulous when they learn that in spite of the
author's thirty-year involvement with RETs, he still supports
nuclear power plants, albeit cautiously. After spending fifteen years on
nuclear power technology and fusion energy, the author appreciates the
importance of such systems as part of an overall energy budget of the
world. He does not subscribe to the present panic against nuclear power
plants. But as stewards of this unique planet, and especially as
Christians, we have been given the responsibility of using its resources
wisely and at minimum risk to the environment and to human kind as a
whole. After all, the sun, a nuclear-fusion power plant, has been placed
at a safe ninety million miles away from Earth, and the planet itself
has been provided with two types of filters to minimize destructive rays
from the sun: a magnetic field that filters out the deadly solar wind
that flows from the sun, and the ozone shield which moderates the flux
of the suns dangerous UV radiation, limiting the UV radiation to
beneficial uses.
Scaling Up Renewable Energy Technologies
Having presented a favorable picture for renewable technologies, it
is important to note some of the problems inherent in the large-scale
use of these technologies. In a special section in Science, this problem
was graphically illustrated (see figure 7). (12) First, it should be
noted that the world population consumes 15 TW of electric power (1 TW
is one trillion watts). The potential for the worldwide use of biomass
is 9 TW; for wind, 20 TW; for hydroelectric power, 1.6 TW; for
geothermal, 3.8 TW; and for solar, more than 50 TW.
All that is well and good; however, one needs to consider the land,
water, and material demands of some of these technologies. The article
gave an illustration of how much land is needed for San Jose, CA, to
provide all 740 megawatts of its power from renew able technologies. To
supply that power, coal mines and coal power plants would need 3,800
hectares of land; a wind farm would need 53,000 hectares, which is
bigger than the area of San Jose itself. How ever, unlike coal mines,
the land occupied by the wind farms would allow crops to grow and cattle
to graze beneath the erected turbines. Solar would require 7,500
hectares; hydroelectric, 1,300 hectares (where abundant rain is
available); and biomass, a whopping 270,000 hectares, unless algal
biofuels were used for fuel from the lipids in the algae. The energy
density of algae, compared with that of cellulosic biomass, is higher by
a factor of three or more. These conditions make it clear that renewable
energy cannot by itself meet all the energy consumption required by a
given country. Another reason for this is that energy from the sun and
the wind are intermittent, and energy from the use of hydropower can be
seasonal. A backup base-load power plant, using fossil fuels or nuclear
power, may be required.
[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]
Lastly, nuclear energy production would cover an area of 4,200
hectares. In fact, the material needs for solar thermal and solar
photovoltaics could exceed the material needs for constructing a nuclear
power plant that would produce the same amount of electric power.
Another interesting number to consider is the use of water. Solar
thermal, for ex ample, will need 70% more water than an equivalent coal
power plant, but not as much as a nuclear power plant would.
One solution to this large-scale application issue is to plan
distributed systems in which each community uses its own mixture of RETs
tied to the city's main power grid (see appropriate technology
section below). Clearly then, one has to consider a mixture of energy
sources to meet the growing energy needs of the world's population.
Finally, we look at a more economical option: conservation and the
efficient use of energy. In fact, as mentioned above, before a country
contemplates the development of renewable resources, it should first
consider conservation measures such as proper insulation or
less-energy-consuming appliances for residential, commercial, and
industrial applications. A careful analysis shows that it is less costly
to in stall such measures than to provide new renewable energy sources.
The former would require expenditures on the order of two cents per
watt, whereas the lowest cost for wind or solar energy subsystems would
be in the range of five to seven cents per watt.
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency within the Scope of
Appropriate Technology
In 1955, the British economist E. F. Schumacher came up with
criteria for technologies that were small scaled, decentralized, and not
energy intensive. He also emphasized that technologies should be
environmentally sustainable, based on renewable resources. (13) In one
of the most famous essays in his book entitled Buddhist Economics, he
blended spiritual values with economic progress in order to achieve
"right livelihood" that would value people over tools and
progress. This he thought would preserve the environment, and foster
simplicity and nonviolence. What Schumacher called intermediate
technology is now called appropriate technology. (14) The appropriate
technology movement grew out of the energy crisis of 1970. It focuses on
environmental and sustainability issues, both of which are fully
applicable today. Although it is commonly discussed in its relationship
to economic development of third-world countries, this movement can be
found in both developing and developed countries.
Amory Lovins expands the definition of appropriate technology to
"appropriate renewable energy." (15) Unlike the problems
mentioned above that will arise when facing large-scale utilization for
RETs, appropriate energy technologies are especially suited for isolated
(off the grid) or small-scale energy needs. With these, electricity can
be provided using PV panels, solar thermal collectors, small wind
turbines, mini- or micro-hydro, etc., some of which are already being
used in villages in Armenia and Switzerland. One curious experiment was
conducted by students from the American University of Armenia. A German
company donated simple, low-cost parabolic dish cookers which were taken
to various villages in Armenia for demonstration purposes. One of the
unexpected problems that arose was the complaint from some villagers
that solar-cooked food did not taste as good as food cooked on wood
stoves!
To avoid problems inherent in the large-scale use of renewable
technologies, distributed systems may be more practical for use in large
cities. These could loosely be classified as "appropriate renewable
energy" networks. In distributed systems, each community in a large
city installs its own electric power generation system, using renewable
technologies such as PV, and connects its system to the main power grid
of the city. All this could materialize once digitized, smart power grid
systems are installed, and demand-side management becomes practical.
Finally, the other practical use of RETs is in locations where no
power grid is available, and electric power is obtained through diesel
generators. The hybrid system consists of a small wind turbine and/ or
PV modules with a diesel generator as backup. The system automatically
shifts from wind or PV to diesel power when the renewable resource is
unavailable (cloud cover, night-time use). Such hybrid systems may be
classified as appropriate technologies and are being installed on small
islands and in villages where no power grid exists, for example, the
islands of Indonesia and several fishing villages in Mexico and Brazil.
Figure 8 is a sketch of a typical hybrid system. Let me sound a word of
caution though. In each village where a hybrid system is installed, the
villagers should take ownership of the system to ensure the operation
and maintenance needed to keep the system running. Another important
point to consider is that before large numbers of such hybrid systems
are installed, there should be trained operation and maintenance staff
accessible to these locations in order to ensure their smooth operation.
[FIGURE 8 OMITTED]
Our Rare Earth and Concluding Remarks
The term "rare earth" was coined by Peter Ward and Donald
Brownlee in a recent book with the same title. (16) In this book, the
two professors from the University of Washington have joined with a
number of astronomers and astrophysicists to show that, in spite of the
possible existence of myriads of other planets throughout our universe,
the chance for another planet like ours that can sustain life is indeed
remote. They base their argument on a careful statistical evaluation of
one hundred plus parameters that must be fulfilled with great precision
before an earth like planet can be formed. Such calculations, first
started by the Cornell University astronomer Frank Drake fifty years
ago, have led to the conclusion that there may be only one earth-like
planet in the universe. (17) Decades of search for extraterrestrial
intelligence (SETI) via radio telescopes have so far received no
extraterrestrial signals to indicate their existence.
For those who believe in a God who created the universe, creating
life elsewhere in the universe should not be a problem. On the other
hand, why would God place such importance on our planet, and feel
compelled to make a soft landing on Earth, through his Sons incarnation,
to reconcile us with the Father?
In summary, let us note that as of today, no signals indicating
intelligent life have been received from outer space. In addition,
recent analyses seem to indicate that the probability of a "just
right" planet like ours to exist more than once is highly unlikely,
and that our Earth has a privileged position in the universe, described
in detail by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards. (18) If we add to
these considerations God's special concern for planet Earth, it
becomes imperative for us to use appropriate technologies in a
responsible manner. This will include encouraging the use of renewable
resources, fuel-efficient cars, and energy-saving appliances. Many
secular people are taking this issue seriously. We as Christians should
be far more proactive in determining how to respond to limited
resources, and energy and technology challenges. We should lead in
making the necessary changes. In so doing, we can fulfill the Apostle
Paul's exhortation to Timothy, in being satisfied with less, not
more (1 Tim. 6:6-8). Living this way then becomes our "reasonable
service" (see Rom. 12:2-3) and permits us to become good stewards
in doing our best, individually and collectively, in sustaining and
enriching our earthly home.
Notes
(1) Paul J. Crutzen and Eugene F. Stoermer, "The
Anthropocene," IGBP Newsletter 41, May 2000, http://www3.mpch
-mainz.mpg.de/-air/Anhopocene/. See also, "Welcome to the
Anthropocene," The Economist (May 26, 2011).
(2) Mark Lynas, The God Species: How the Planet Can Survive the Age
of Humans (London: Fourth Estate, 2011) (published in the USA by
National Geographic as The God Species: Saving the Planet in the Age of
Humans). For a review of the book, see The Economist (July 14,2011):86.
(3) Kenell J. Touryan, "ASA in the 21St Century,"
Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 56, no. 2 (June 2004): 82-8.
(4) Edward Teller, Better a Shield than a Sword (New York: Free
Press, 1987), 50.
(5) Julian L. Simon, ed., The State of Humanity (Oxford, UK:
Blackwell, 1995); Julian L. Simon, "'Finite Doesn't Fit
Here," The Oregonian (Portland), February 11,1997; Julian L. Simon,
"Earth's Doomsayers Are Wrong," San Francisco Chronicle,
May 12, 1995; Paul Ehrlich, The Population Bomb (New York: Ballantine
Books, 1971); and Paul Ehrlich and Stephen Schneider, "A $15,000
Counter-Offer," San Francisco Chronicle, May 18,1995.
(6) Kenell J. Touryan, "Renewable Energy: Rapidly Maturing
Technology for the 21st Century," Journal of Propulsion and Power
15, no. 2 (March-April 1999):163-74.
(7) Commission of the European Communities, Renewable Energy Road
Map, Brussels COM (2006) 848 final.
(8) Solar America Initiative (SAI) concluded in 2009, incorporated
into the US Dept. of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Program.
(9) For more information, see Touryan, "Renewable Energy:
Rapidly Maturing Technology for the 21St Century," 165-6.
(10) For details see Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE) at
www.bfe.admin.ch/themen/00490/index.html/.
(11) For the executive summary, see http//r2e2.am/wp
-content/uploads/2011/07/Roadmap-11pdf/.
(12) Adrian Cho, "Energy's Tricky Tradeoffs,"
Science 329 (13 August 2010): 786-7.
(13) E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People
Mattered (New York: Harper & Row, 1977).
(14) Barrett Hazeltine and Christopher Bull, Appropriate
Technology: Tools, Choices, and Implications (New York: Academic Press,
1998), 3.
(15) Amory B. Lovins, Soft Energy Paths: Toward a Durable Peace
(San Francisco, CA: Harpercollins,1979).
(16) Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee, Rare Earth: Why Complex
Life Is Uncommon in the Universe (New York: Springer Verlag, 2000),
chap. 12.
(17) Frank Drakes equation to predict how many civilizations might
exist in our galaxy is given in Ward and Brownlee, "Rare
Earth," 257. See also John D. Barrow and Frank J. Tipler, The
Anthropic Cosmological Principle (New York: Oxford University Press,
1986).
(18) Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards, The Privileged Planet:
How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery (Washington, DC:
Regnery Publishing, 2004).
Kenell Touryan received his PhD in mechanical and aerospace
sciences from Princeton University. He joined Sandia National
Laboratories and worked there as manager of the fluid and plasma
dynamics department until 1978. From 1978-1981, he was Deputy Director
at the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) in Colorado. After
spending ten years in industry where he helped commercialize wind and
solar energy systems, he moved back to SERI, now called the National
Renewable Energy Research Laboratory, as chief technology analyst. From
2003 to 2011, he held the position of Vice President of R&D at the
American University of Armenia. Touryan is the recipient of many honors
and citations in renewable energy technologies. He is the author of
three books, over ninety articles in refereed journals, and he holds
three patents. He is now retired and lives in Indian Hills, CO, with his
wife Cheryl.