* Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, just converted from one form to another, such as from sunlight to plant matter, and during this process energy is lost which is impractical to recover.
* Each day, the sun provides a finite amount of energy to the earth which creates our weather, causes the winds to blow, rains to fall, the plants to grow and shapes the face of our planet.
* All animals eat plants or eat animals that eat plants.
* Plants use photosynthesis to turn sunlight into stored energy in the form of carbohydrates, the basic fuel of all animals. There is no alternative to plant energy, just as there is no alternative to oxygen for animals including humans to live.
* Humans consume about 40 percent of Earth’s “primary productivity” which is the energy collected by plants each year, which may explain why the current extinction rate for other species is 1,000 times that it was before humans dominated the planet.
* The United States uses about half of the world’s primary productivity yet accounts for only about 6.3 percent of its population.
* This disparity is unsustainable. Therefore, in order to ensure a high quality of life for ourselves, our children, grandchildren, and future generations, we must learn to operate our society more energy efficiently.
* The “enhanced crop yields” which we are seeing are not a “scientific breakthrough” but are more like a “simple parlor trick of an amateur magician” wherein we now have crop yields 5 times higher per acre than the 1950s BUT we use 30-50 times more energy to produce these crops. We are actually “less efficient” than we were 60 years ago and our crops are more contaminated with herbicides and pesticides than before.
* We are using hundreds of “calories” of oil (plant energy stored over millions of years), to produce a few calories of food therefore when this oil runs out, we will all starve if current food production and distribution methods are not drastically changed and improved.
* This is only one of many issues facing our food supply which we will discuss in future articles.
* We MUST develop new technologies to use ONLY the energy available from the sun each year, the planet’s “primary productivity” to feed and power our civilization if we are to enjoy a sustainable future for ourselves and future generations.
