http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/23/AR2009112303966.html?hpid=topnews

This is a really interesting sign of progress. In “Global Energy Transformation” I argue in favor of nuclear power, as an expandable energy source. The use of nuclear power is preferable to the alternatives, climate change, and also to declining global energy supplies.

We have grown dependent on increasing amounts of energy in order to keep the global economy working and expanding, and we will need a large scale planned and managed program in order to reduce this dependence. Developing new renewable energy sources will also require planned and managed programs. While we are waiting for this to happen, we need to utilise the technologies that are available to us and expand them.

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In a statement of the 14th of November the IEA states that governments need to reduce carbon emissions faster than have previously been planned. The recommendation is reminiscent of the message of “Global Energy Transformation.”:

“Putting the world on to a 450 ppm trajectory requires a deep and rapid transformation of the way we produce and consume energy, and a similar transformation of industrial processes and agricultural and forestry practices,” the IEA said. “Innovation would be required across all sectors.”

The complete article from The National can be read using the link below:

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091114/BUSINESS/711149921/1005

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As I said, I cannot wait until I get my hands on this new book. Even though I only have a vague idea about the content, it sure looks promising!!!

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This will not be a problem during “business-as-usual”. Increasing specialization makes sense during periods of economic growth and increasing prosperity. Specialization contributes to both.

When we face problems in the economy, or in society as a whole, we need to take a look at the big picture, evaluate how things fit together, and come up with new ideas for solutions. The expression that a problem can not be solved between the system of ideas that created it has, in another wording, been attributed to Albert Einstein.

With an increasing number of experts, the task of finding new routes forward becomes more difficult and resource consuming.

When I started to work as a management consultant, in 1990, most of my collegues in the international management consulting company SIAR-Bossard were generalists. Today, a large share of the consultants at large management consulting firms are specialists, focusing on a narrow set of management issues. In this context these people need to be part of a large project, involving many different specialists, in order to create a strategy, change management plan or business plan.

This situation also makes the job of informing people about the need to transform energy systems on a large scale more difficult. Most people don’t see what they can do to help, not even in a small way, when the problem is formulated as a relatively general and broad issue. Most people need detailed analyses and explanations of how the problem will affect them, and what they, with their particular competence, can do to help with the solution.

This is something that we need to deal with in the near future. In the new book, which will be released in early December, this problem is discussed and the implications are analyzed. It is all presented in a form that will be easy for the reader to understand and digest.

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The current story was published in The Financial Times, which also offered an opportunity to ask a question about the future oil supply to the chief economist of the IEA, Fatih Birol.

http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/

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