Tides and Stuff - March 8, Chapter 14 and 15

Tony Curzon Price, 8 March 2009
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March 8th 2009. Join the Group Read. Chapters 14 and 15. Tides and Stuff

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Tide farms, tide barriers and two-way tide pools sound very attractive. And they won't make the world stop turning. Unfortunately, even for the rather tide-rich British Isles, we can only really hope to cover something about equivalent to our lighting and gadget energy consumption this way. And the economics of building large installations are not yet clear. Stuff, on the other hand, is much less attractive. Just making and transporting it -- TVs, food, drink, packaging, cans, computers ... -- is our biggest single consumption category. Reducing the stuff-intensity of well-being seems like a good goal.

About the author

Tony Curzon Price  is Editor-in-Chief of openDemocracy and blogs at tony.curzon.com


March 8th 2009. Join the Group Read. Chapters 12 and 13. Tides and Stuff

(Instructions on how to join are at the bottom of the original post)

Tide farms, tide barriers and two-way tide pools sound very attractive. And they won't make the world stop turning. Unfortunately, even for the rather tide-rich British Isles, we can only really hope to cover something about equivalent to our lighting and gadget energy consumption this way. And the economics of building large installations are not yet clear. Stuff, on the other hand, is much less attractive. Just making and transporting it -- TVs, food, drink, packaging, cans, computers ... -- is our biggest single consumption category. Reducing the stuff-intensity of well-being seems like a good goal.

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