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⬅️ Previous capture (2023-05-24)
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The Western world seems to have two energy crises occurring simultaneously.
One is the obvious crisis we all know: our over-reliance on fossil fuels and the issues it causes. Fossils fuels, while efficient, are finite and create pollution. While renewable sources of energy are important to offset the issues of traditional energy, they still rely on rare-earth minerals and energy-intensive production methods to build out at scale. We also use energy wastefully and recklessly, further exacerbating environmental problems.
The second crisis is a crisis of energy stored in our own bodies: the modern pandemic of obesity. Fat is stored metabolic energy, and the richness of food available to use in the West--and particularly in the United States--is such that we ingest far more metabolic energy than our ancestors did. However, our reliance on machines to do everything from transporting us to cleaning our houses means that we don't burn the fat we accrue.
In short, the modern world is set up to create way too much of one kind of energy but never use it, while using way too much of another kind of energy we can't create. I'd wager that more of the problems we see in the world would be solved if we realigned our priorities and let human power drive more human endeavors once again.
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[Last updated: 2023-05-12]