Joseph Tainter speaks. from 0:29 seconds: This is very important. Energy is ultimately the key to sustainability. I argue that sustainability is a function of problem solving - of a society's capacity to solve it's problems. Solving problems is costly - it requires complexity and the complexity has to be ultimately paid for by energy. Now we sustain our highly complex societies today at levels well beyond what would be possible just with solar energy. Basically we sustain complexity and we sustain our problem solving capacity today through fossil fuels. So we maybe facing a real challenge. Not just that fossil fuels become so expensive that its difficult for people to commute to work or heat their homes. But the high cost and perhaps increasing scarcity of particularly petroleum - liquid fuels - may threaten our ability to be a complex society. In other words - our capacity to solve problems, to support institutions that can solve the problems that we are facing in the future.
following joseph tainter, vaclav smil, ronald wright, jared diamond, peter turchin and niko tinbergen Failure is the best option