Energy - Wind Energy: Renewable Energy and the Environment - page 28

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FIGURE 2.9 Possible future paths for the population of earth.

sectors. National, state, and even local building codes will improve energy efficiency in buildings. Finally,
there are a number of things that you as an individual can do in conservation and energy efficiency. In
addition, be an advocate for conservation, efficiency, renewable energy, and the environment.
Possible futures for human society are conservation and efficiency, transition to sustainable
energy, and a steady state with no growth, catastrophe, or catastrophe with some revival (Figure 2.9).
As overpopulation and overconsumption are affecting the earth, an uncontrolled experiment, the
most probable future for population is catastrophe or catastrophe with some revival.

LINKS
Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, www.eia.doe.gov . The EIA site contains
a lot of information on U.S. and international energy resources and production. Reports and data files
can be downloaded, as well as PDFs and spreadsheets.
International Energy Agency, www.eia.org . Oil and gas production in Texas are regulated by the Texas
Railroad Commission, www.rrc.state.tx.us .
Peak Oil, www.peakoil.com .
United Nations, www.un.org/esa/population/unpop.htm . Information and projections on population.
U.S. Census, www.census.gov. Information on world population.
Worldmapper, www.worldmapper.org . Shows morphed countries of the world where size depends on topi-
cal data such as population, oil exports, oil imports, and others.

REFERENCES
1. Ken Adler. 1986. The perpetual search for perpetual motion. American Heritage of Invention and

Technology , Summer, 58.

2. Glenn Zorpette. 1999. Waiting for the supercar. Scientific American , April, 46.

3. Amory Lovins. 1977. Soft energy paths, toward a durable peace . Ballinger: San Francisco.

4. Night sky of earth. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010827.html .

5. M. King Hubbert. 1969. Energy resources. In Resources and man: National Academy of Sciences ,

157-242. W.H. Freeman: San Francisco. Also in “Energy Resources of the Earth,” Scientific American ,
1971, 60.