Life After This Entropy Watershed

Rifkin, one of the realists, gives a fascinating and lengthy vision of this post-industrial low-entropy era as he calls it, which is guided by the physical limits we face - the limits of our planet s resources and the limits we must impose on the use of technology . He predicts drastic changes in our way of life and deeply held values such as  

But Baum concludes But I do not think he can be dismissed. I wish he could be.  

Rifkin, however, is not the only realist. Following are the comments of Dr Lave, an economist and environmental expert at Carnegie-Mellon University, as quoted by P. Shaberoff (1988) Major changes in daily life would be necessary, he said. We get to drive and fly less, and use a lot less fuel for space conditioning. Our houses can t be as warm in winter or as cold in summer. A lot of materials we use such as plastics and aluminum are really congealed energy. We are going to have to be less of a throwaway society.  

Rifkin and the other realists could of course turn out to be wrong. It is very doubtful, for example, that the world crisis predicted for the year 2000 by Meadows and Meadows (1972) in the Limits of Growth will be realized. (It may be, of course, that it will be just postponed). 

And from Chemical and Engineering News, May 22,1989, p.5 After a week of controversy. President Bush has reversed his earlier wait-and-see stance and committed his Administration to working toward an international agreement on global warming. The scope and importance of the issue are so great, says White House chief of staff John H. Sununu, that it is essential for the U.S. to exercise a leadership role. 

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