Using More Energy To Produce Energy = A Poorer Society

The more energy it takes to produce energy, the poorer our society becomes.

The concept of “Net Energy Return on Energy Invested” is one of the most important concepts that will lead us to a safe future.

One of its precepts is that: “Social complexity is based on surplus energy.” The amount of energy left over from what it takes to get that energy is surplus energy – and that surplus energy is what makes our society complex and interesting.

This is why I keep asking why we aren’t trying to force more geothermal energy use. It doesn’t take much energy to produce geothermal energy, and that relationship would be stable for a very long time.

It seems like we should be bringing geothermal online faster, rather than slower. The more we do, the more we learn how to use it.

Chris Martenson describes this whole concept in two short, easy-to-understand videos. Here’s his introduction to the videos:

In the next section, we will discuss the intersection between Energy and the Economy, and I will make the point that it was no accident that our exponential, debt-based money system grew up at precisely the same moment that a new source of high quality energy was discovered that proved capable of increasing exponentially right alongside it.

Now we embark on the precise line of thinking that completely dominates my investing and purchasing habits. I call it energy economics. With sufficient surplus energy, humans can construct remarkably complex creations in short order. Social complexity relies on surplus energy.

Societies that unwillingly lose complexity are notoriously unpleasant places to live. Given this, shouldn’t we pay close attention to how much surplus energy we’ve got and where it comes from?

Here are the two short videos. They are well worth watching.