The Oil We Eat

Here is a disturbing article about the current state of human population and the energy it requires. Read the article because I cannot summarize it with any justice.

Basically, the food we eat is produced using a tremendous amount of energy. All energy on Earth at some point came from the Sun. The sun gives us a certain, fixed amount of energy each year. For millenia though a lot of this energy was stored. Some of it was stored in bio-matter that died and eventually became oil.

The food we eat today is not produced in an energy efficient way. Our food is processed and transported. This takes a tremendous amount of energy. In fact, it takes many times the amount of energy in fossil fuel to produce the food I eat than the amount of energy in calories that I get out of the food. We are able to sustain this because of the tremendous amount of stored energy on earth.

The implied question is "What happens when we run out?" We can't run a deficit in energy forever can we?

Frankly, I this concern ignores human innovation. The most disturbing thing about this argument is the assumption that a wealthy human being is a poor use of the world's resources. Humans have taken over the planet and displaced countless species in the process. My question is "So what?" Isn't survival and reproduction the goal or any form of life? Why should humans be different?

This is not to say I am closed to arguments about misuse of resources or dangers we are creating for ourselves.

I found the link to this article over at Marginal Revolution.