Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

The notes for Chapter 1 appear on page 347 of this pdf.Chapter OneNational EnergyInsecurityThe United States has for decades been undermining the foundations of itsown strength. It has gradually built up an energy system prone to sudden,massive failures with catastrophic consequences.The energy that runs America is brittle—easily shattered by accident ormalice. That fragility frustrates the efforts of our Armed Forces to defend anation that literally can be turned off by a handful of people. It poses, indeed,a grave and growing threat to national security, life, and liberty.This danger comes not from hostile ideology but from misapplied technology.It is not a threat imposed on us by enemies abroad. It is a threat wehave heedlessly—and needlessly—imposed on ourselves.Many Americans’ most basic functions depend, for example, on a continuoussupply of electricity. Without it, subways and elevators stall, factoriesand offices grind to a halt, electric locks jam, intercoms and televisions standmute, and we huddle without light, heat, or ventilation. A brief faltering ofour energy pulse can reveal—sometimes as fatally as to astronauts in a spacecraft—thehidden brittleness of our interdependent, urbanized-society. Yetthat continuous electrical supply now depends on many large and precisemachines, rotating in exact synchrony across half a continent, and strungtogether by an easily severed network of aerial arteries whose failure isinstantly disruptive. The size, complexity, pattern, and control structure ofthese electrical machines make them inherently vulnerable to large-scale failures:a vulnerability which government policies are systematically increasing.The same is true of the technologies that deliver oil, gas; and coal to run ourvehicles, buildings, and industries. Our reliance on these delicately poisedenergy systems has unwittingly put at risk our whole way of life.The United States has reached the point where1