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Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet, 2021a

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14 Biological <str<strong>on</strong>g>Energy</str<strong>on</strong>g> 238<br />

area be in terms of the side length of a square in units of kilometers.<br />

Draw this to approximate scale <strong>on</strong> a crude representati<strong>on</strong> of the<br />

c<strong>on</strong>tiguous U.S. And this is at the optimistic end.<br />

14. What fracti<strong>on</strong> of the earth’s 100 TW biological budget (all life <strong>on</strong><br />

the planet) do you think is justifiable to use in service of human<br />

energy needs? Explain your reas<strong>on</strong>ing. What does this become in<br />

TW, <str<strong>on</strong>g>and</str<strong>on</strong>g> how does it compare to our 18 TW current appetite?<br />

If the EROEI is less than 2:1 (as it is for<br />

many biofuels), we would cut your estimate<br />

in TW by more than half to account for the<br />

diverted energy used for extracti<strong>on</strong>.<br />

© 2021 T. W. Murphy, Jr.; Creative Comm<strong>on</strong>s Attributi<strong>on</strong>-N<strong>on</strong>Commercial 4.0 Internati<strong>on</strong>al Lic.;<br />

Freely available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/energy_ambiti<strong>on</strong>s.

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