Does anybody still read science fiction?

SOCIAL STUDIES - Published Monday August 11th, 2008

Whenever I get any news from the energy sector I start to wonder.

Whether we are talking about plans for the future, or dire warnings from the present; it would seem that no one who works with non-renewable resources has ever been exposed to the science fiction genre. Otherwise they would recognize that there are lots of possibilities, and also some things you just should not do.

There are already a number of alternatives to our unnecessary addiction to fossil fuels.

What about bringing back airships and train travel?

A train is far more energy efficient than an airplane, can hold more people, takes less maintenance . . . and yet, for some reason it is prohibitively expensive. Who is going to ride Via Rail from Moncton to Toronto for $300 when you can fly for $100?

Instead of taking risks and being inventive, what seems to be happening is that everyone hopes we find more oil. In fact, it is becoming so lucrative to drill that we are destroying watersheds and arctic ice caps to find minerals and combustibles. There is even deep core drilling now. This involves ever increasing technological breakthroughs that allow drill rigs to burrow almost to the magma holding back the flames in the centre of the Earth.

Chevron for example has spent billions looking for and obtaining oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The record-setting Chevron well, called Jack 2, which is 175 miles off the Louisiana coast, is more than five miles deep, including more than a mile of ocean depth. And the computer industry helps them out with 3-D imaging software to find deposits previously hidden by rock.

Advanced deep-sea rigs like Transocean Incorporated's Cajun Express, the one they used there, are capable of drilling to depths of 35,000 feet, about double what the previous generation could do.

But, and this is a serious interjection based on a lifetime of science fiction. Should we do that?

First off, as Spiderman, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, Tarzan and even Dante's Inferno tried to warn us; there are whole cultures of beast and creature living below that we should not alert to our presence. . . the Mole Men might get angry.

But seriously, dismissing fantasy from fact within my fiction -- there is a pretty thin crust that separates superheated liquid rock, from fire spewing magma. . . and if those drills so much as crack that barrier. . . we will create at the very best, a new volcano; and at the worst, a super-heated spiral of ocean that funnels the atmosphere back down into the sea and causes a new ice age. This last bit could be made up, but it is the premise of the movie The Day After Tomorrow and probably worth paying attention to just so we can say "I told you so."

Why should we risk any number of catastrophes, including the wrath of ever more frequent hurricanes blowing across the Gulf, for a resource whose days are already numbered and which has, frankly, long over-stayed its welcome?

There are so many other solutions out there. . .

Scientific American has published data that shows that a hydrogen fuel cell power plant for a car can run at up to 55 per cent efficiency, where a combustion engine hovers around 30 per cent. There is also no waste product; and the energy does not run down or need recharging.

Speaking of energy, what about wind turbines and tidal power? An Ontario company has even found a way to get around the annoying noise of a modern windmill; placing the turbine within a helium filled balloon lifted out of earshot. It is called the "Magenn Power Air Rotor System", or MARS.

There is even old fashioned solar electricity, collected in photovoltaic cells and stored in batteries. Or to take it a step further, Alternative Energy News reports that a Utah based solar company (IAUS) has begun construction on the first phase of a project they claim could produce electricity for Californians for a cheaper price than either coal or gas.

The first solar lenses are being installed near the Great Basin Desert in Eastern California. The unique thin-film lens focuses the sun's energy, producing super-heated steam for power generation at an efficiency rate of 92 per cent.

But it is all too prohibitively expensive, right? Well, sorry, vegetables are becoming prohibitively expensive because of the breakdown of our oil based economy.

Down in Indiana, where I have spent some time, there are Amish and Mennonite living the way that everyone seems worried we have to return to. They travel by horse and buggy, they farm the land and create most of what they use, own, or sell with their own two hands. Some of the reasons behind their choices have always seemed exceptional to me. For example a horse and buggy means you have to think long and hard about travelling far enough away that you won't be home for dinner with the family. There is also the very real fact that it is very hard to kill another living thing with a buggy.

I know I might be over romanticizing, but does that really sound so bad?

Let's scrap it all and start over.

There is no oil. There is no internal combustion. There is pottery and glass; the sun wind and rain . . . now what are we going to do to make it all work in harmony?