Supertrends

5.THE PATH TO INFINITE ENERGY

People have often lacked energy sources – for heating, cooking, and all sorts of other things. Actually, when you think about it, that is pretty weird, given that the vast quantity of radioactivity in the subsoil of the earth – chiefly in the form of uranium, thorium, and potassium – contributes substantially to the fact that 99% of the soil is hotter than 1000ºC and only 0.1% – the thin crust on which we live – cooler than 100ºC. Added to that is the fact that global energy from solar radiation is about 7000 times greater than our current global consumption of energy.

Nevertheless, throughout the history of humankind, the struggle to obtain the necessary energy to sustain life has often been one of the hardest. However, this was generally due to lack of innovation, as when our ancestors would sometimes die of cold, lying on twigs and branches that they could have turned into a big, warming bonfire – if they had just known how to light it. In other words, there was no lack of resources; merely lack of the technology for using them. Once again, this illustrates that the ultimate resource is always innovation.

Together with the use of animals for transport and the like, burning wood and twigs (not forgetting manure) was people's main source of energy in the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages. Approximately 3000 years ago, however, the Chinese began to use coal to extract iron, and directed natural emissions of natural gas through bamboo pipes so they could ...