I happened to see this picture on a slide presentation in an summer seminar* at the American Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and I wanted to share it with you all just to state a couple of enquiries.

What happens when a country's naive perspective becomes it's solely excuse to grant it's own egocentric and selfish prosperity? In terms of Energy where is our world going to? Besides the now going war for petroleum and the not so far one for drinking water, with renewables on the list, What would be the future of our society. If they ask for their own security who assures freedom in other countries?

I wonder if you think that this could be the best way to illustrate security on a slide presentation on a top rated institute for the whole world.
*Panel Three: Technological Aspects of Generation Options.
New Plants Deployment (PDF 1.6MB) Ray Ganthner. Framatome ANP

Today, land is used for living, working, recreation and most importantly, food production. A relatively new use is growing biomass for energy use, which requires vast areas of land because of the diffuse nature of sunlight, and the low efficiency of plants capturing it. There is a direct competition for agricultural land between energy and food. Land requirements for both uses depend on consumption and production per square meter, 2 parameters which vary widely. In this paper, S Nonhebel estimates land requirements based on today's consumption patterns and production efficiency, providing a basis for the construction of scenario's.


How much land?
Total land available is 13 Gha (13 billion ha or 130 million square km). Arable land (1.5 Gha), pastures (3.5 Gha) and forests/woodlands (4 Gha) provide total 9 Gha for growing biomass, which in a world of 6 billion people means 1.5 ha (15,000 sq.meter) per person (under the untenable assumption that humans are entitled to 100% of available land).

How much energy?
In 2003, the world consumed 435 EJ of primary energy, or 70 GJ/pp/year. Developing countries use about 35 GJ/pp/year, whereas developed countries consume 200 GJ. Within developed countries, consumption varies significantly between Japan (.. GJ), Europe (150 GJ) and North America (350 GJ).

How much food?
Just like we express energy use in primary energy equivalents expressed in Joules or tonnes of oil equivalent (toe), food consumption can be expressed in kg grain equivalent. A basic menu requires 200 kg/pp/yr, while rich countries consume more like 800 kg (including fooder required for secondary foods such as beef, porc, ...).

Food and energy production
The paper below mentions following conversion factors:

'rich' 'poor'
Grain yield (kg/m2) 1.0 0.2
Energy yield - photovoltaics (MJ/m2) 780 780
Energy yield - biomass (MJ/m2) 27 1.8

Using these ratio's in combination with today's energy & food diets yields following land requirement per person:

developing countries, biomass energy: > 20,000 m2
developed countres, biomass energy: 8,200 m2
developed countries, photovoltaics: 1,000 m2 (of which 256 m2 PV)
Conclusion
The author concludes that for developing countries, the use of biomass points to a critical situation. For developed countries, PV-systems are the only long-term option, though biomass may function as a transition fuel.



S Nonhebel, Renewable energy and food supply: will there be enough land?, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews, 9(2005) 191-201

"The Japanese have always loved fresh fish.
But the waters close to Japan have not held many fish for decades.
So to feed the Japanese population, fishing boats got bigger and went farther than ever.
The farther the fishermen went, the longer it took to bring in the fish.
If the return trip took more than a few days, the fish were not fresh.
The Japanese did not like the taste.
To solve this problem, fishing companies installed freezers on their boats.
They would catch the fish and freeze them at sea.
Freezers allowed the boats to go farther and stay longer.

However, the Japanese could taste the difference between fresh and frozen and they did not like frozen fish.
The frozen fish brought a lower price.

So fishing companies installed fish tanks. They would catch the fish and stuff them in the tanks, fin to fin.
After a little thrashing around, the fish stopped moving.
They were tired and dull, but alive.
Unfortunately, the Japanese could still taste the difference.
Because the fish did not move for days, they lost their fresh-fish taste.
The Japanese preferred the lively taste of fresh fish, not sluggish fish.

So how did Japanese fishing companies solve this problem?
How do they get fresh-tasting fish to Japan?

To keep the fish tasting fresh, the Japanese fishing companies still put the fish in the tanks.
But now they add a small SHARK to each tank. The shark eats a few fish, but most of the fish arrive in a very lively state.

THE FISH ARE CHALLENGED.

As soon as you reach your goals, such as earning good Money, getting a good position, starting a successful company, paying off your debts or whatever, you might lose your passion. You don't need to work so hard so you relax.

Like the Japanese fish problem, the best solution is Simple. It was observed by L. Ron Hubbard in the early 1950's.
"Man thrives, oddly enough, only in the presence of a challenging environment."

The Benefits of a Challenge

The more intelligent, persistent and competent you are, the more you enjoy a good problem. If your challenges are the correct size, and if you are steadily conquering those challenges, you are happy. You think of your challenges and get energized. You are excited to try new solutions. You Have fun. You are alive!

Recommendations :

Instead of avoiding challenges, jump into them. Beat the heck out of them.


Enjoy the game. If your challenges are too large or too numerous, do not give up. Failing makes you tired. Instead, reorganize. Find more determination, more knowledge, more help.

Don't create success and lie in it. You have resources, skills and abilities to make a difference. Put a shark in your tank and see how far you can really go!

"WISHES FOR A NICE AND A FRUITFUL WORKING DAY"

Hello everyone, this is the guy from Colombia in the sombrero(hat).

People from all over the world gathered at the dinning halls, it's very unique to see so many cultures get together around one main food dish, but it is not just fun after all, I don't know if you have noticed how people fill their trays with food but at the end of the meal you'll see tons of waste of food, like people that serve you put more food than what you can actually eat, so we come to a world youth congress and we see all this inconsistency around, like we are trying to erradicate poverty and hunger, but the leaders and the people that are actually taking action they just waste as much as they can. How about sustainable consumption, how about saving resources, how about people dying every minute in the world every minute? Isn't it ironic.

JACK´S LETTER

This is a letter that the 9th of August of the year 2006, will receive in Scotland a Investment Banker, sent by its brother:

Dear Jack:

In fifteen days we will be seeing each other again in Edinburgh, where as always you’ll entertain yourself listening to my stories of my journeys all over the world. Nevertheless, in this opportunity I have not been able to hold the desire of telling you early part of my impressions on this Colombia that you said at home, constituted the most difficult destiny of all of what I had visited. My curiosity did more on knowing what in the world of tourism is being called "THE NEW DISCOVERY".

This nation, Jack, has the most spectacular landscapes than a human being can imagine, you can go in a few hours from the fascinating caribbean sea to the top of one of it’s three mountain ranges, to converse with a millenarian tribe, the Kogis Indians and also to receive from them their rich cosmology in symbols but in realities, with an infinite kindness. Not very far from there, in a zone of salt operation, called the “Guajira”, where the old ranch homes hospitality, the exotic beauty of its indigenous women and the amplitude of their spirits impressed me. I went to an Island, Providence, where the colors of the sea would bewitch the most exquisite of the painters and where the placidness of its abundant orange crab beaches is fed by its exotic inhabitants, brown men of blond hair, polyglots, with a music that gathers with delight and harmony the crossing of human races and cultures. I do not know what happens there, but the sensuality is at skin level. The natives make the tourists float in the space with the calm interpretation of the relation between the sky constellations in one starred night and love. I also went to one of the most rainy places on the planet with the greatest biodiversity known, the “Chocó”; in the middle of colourful butterflies I learned what is matting fishing, where the calmed and generous “BOGA” shared to me, speaking very gentle, the secrets of the rustic surroundings and the centennial pain remedies for the body and soul, and I bathed in immense cascades. In Colombia, within its forests, I understood the Earth lungs matter.
I lowered later to the “Vallecaucano” Pacific to appreciate the arrival of the hunchback whales, that every year for decades, have been coming from the South Pole to mate in these warm waters and they return to continue with the gestation period, until a year later when they return to give birth to their breeding; here they learn to swim and here they will return throughout its life. The region is populated with descendants of Africans where their music and gastronomy makes them proud of that umbilical cord.

Soon I went to the coffee zone where the landscapes generated by the sinuosity hills, and the diverse tree shades over the coffee plantations, give a gorgeous contrast to the above added, majestic wax palms which have been standing elegant watching the arrival of tourists in small trucks,which are conserved perfectly, manufactured for more than 40 years ago. But nothing more pleasant than getting in the mornings the kind smile of a countrywoman from Salento that has just brought to you the strained coffee and enjoys as nobody does, seeing you delight it with its scent and its flavor.

Throughout the day, the family of farmers, brings to you fruits of those shaded trees, sometimes as juice other times in their natural state and you happen to see the glad passage of "jeeps" loaded with goods and hens or in the afternoon the return of the children which come in bunches from the nearest school.

When we'll chat in Edinburgh, I will tell you some other pleasing surprises: as diverse people as charming, the valleys landscapes; in short, I have spent nights in blank thinking about what I have told you here and about so many good people those who I have known. You might be asking yourself why I don’t talk about the cities? I believe that it will be your duty now that you are the financial brain of the family. If you don’t come as soon as you can, you will lose magnificent businesses opportunities that are being held specially in Bogota, Cali and Medellín. They told me that at their magnificent hotels amounts of investors arrive from America, Europe and the Eastern countries. Imagine how would be like wasting a potential of 45 million consumers, in a country with a privileged position, great influence on the countries of the Andean area and with an industrial infrastructure that would turn it into the ideal supplier for Central America and Caribbean islands. In addition, it has received the solidarity of some of the most powerful nations as a result of its fight against drugs, which has generated preference tariffs that made Colombian products so competitive in the United States and Europe. Do not doubt about it Jack, that great part of your businesses future is here.
But you might ask me what happened, why that Colombia that would be in 2006, is so positively different from that impossible country of which it was told until some time? The answer is that during the previous Government, the visionary governors and the guerrilla leaders agreed that after so many years of conflict, Colombia deserved a better destiny. The Presidents were conscious that the country needed to change and that their fellow citizens had to make sacrifices, to find peace and a more tolerant and balanced way for all. The veteran guerrilla leader understood that the balance of its existence would not have to be in harvested human lives, in the number of widows or orphans or in the amount of blood spilled all over the country. That great revolutions heroes must go beyond posterity, not by the amount of generated violence, but by the effective success of a social transformation. That a life achievement is not to receive a small revolutionary army and to return a big one, but to be born in a country with injustice and at the end of the days be one co-protagonist of a new country where everyone fits peacefully and with a clear future.

Finally Jack, everyone here realized that and great sacrifices were made. It was not easy. Many of the guerrilla men make part of the army now. Others are ecotourism or agricultural entrepreneurs in their regions. All of them understood something that I hope to have transmitted to you with this letter. That the best of all the Colombian landscapes, is the human. Each beautiful place of this land, is complemented with good, amused, laborious and warm people. That sum of factors, people, climates, biodiversity and mainly the peace that was obtained and that was welcomed by all the guerrilla groups and supported by the Government and the society, is what has given origin to which the Travel agencies worldwide call "the new discovery". The great beneficiary of all this subject are not just the great cities executives that are receiving the foreign investors, are the million countrymen, the “bogas”, butler’s children cattle carriers, young guides, rural small hotels that have made of the tourism their more beautiful form to live and to share.
Jack, don’t hesitate to come, this country of these days is so fascinating that it would be irresponsible to die without coming to know it.

Your brother, Andrew

Eduardo José Victoria / Stellar Hotels Manager
(translation done by GMS)