ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
History of Technology 1: The Search for Renewable Energy Begins 12 Views
Share It!
Description:
The search for renewable energy led us to look carefully at many things: wind, water, the sun, our grandpa's farts after taco night...all viable options.
Transcript
- 00:00
by the 1950s humanity had it all. steam called electricity combustion
- 00:08
engines and even nuclear power. we were at the top of our energy game rolling in
- 00:13
cheap abundant energy. nothing could bring us down well except for the fact
- 00:18
that coal oil and uranium are limited resources. everything is limited [man goes swimming]
- 00:22
resources actually. even the Sun is gonna run out of hydrogen in a few you know
Full Transcript
- 00:27
billion years. then it's core will collapse and its outer layers will
- 00:31
devour the earth. this is such an uplifting video. but on the bright side
- 00:36
at least we've got some time before that happens. and we have more pressing
- 00:39
business like what's gonna be the next song of the summer? or what's gonna
- 00:44
happen when oil keeps getting rarer and more expensive .what well they're come
- 00:49
forward. anyway these days we hear a lot of advocates calling for us putting more
- 00:53
time and money into researching green renewable energy sources. where did that
- 00:58
movement begin? well not in the early 1900s that's for sure. back then nobody
- 01:03
was worried about things like carbon emissions peak oil or rising energy
- 01:07
prices. didn't look like we'd ever run out of coal or oil. and yeah coal slow
- 01:12
smelled gross but it was probably totally fine right? well sure there were [people wear masks in smoke]
- 01:16
early murmurs of fear people couldn't look at our mines and oil wells and then
- 01:21
look at the increasing rate of consumption and put two and two together.
- 01:24
much later in 1956 a man named M king Hubbert published the paper that
- 01:30
essentially said
- 01:34
while hovered invented the idea of peak oil - which would be the moment when oil
- 01:39
production would peak and then decline. after peak oil
- 01:44
there won't be discoveries of deeper oil wells and oil production while takin
- 01:48
noes dive. our fossil fuel based world might not grow forever. while Hubbert
- 01:54
wasn't the only person saying dooms day things. world had to face the idea that [lighting flashes]
- 01:58
we were running on a quarter tank of fuel down a long dirt road, no gas
- 02:03
stations and no emergency plan. well there were lots of different reactions
- 02:07
to this realization. one was the environmentalist movement of the 1960s
- 02:11
and 70s which said we should lower our consumption of energy and change our
- 02:16
lifestyles. presumably by wearing more beads and flowers and stuff. well others
- 02:21
saw the whole thing is a national security issue. maybe we were running out
- 02:25
of energy but we'd be fine as long as the Russians ran out first. ha ha take
- 02:30
that commies. but some just saw a huge business opportunity whoever came up
- 02:34
with the next big deal in energy could be a bazillionaire. [people mock renewable energy]
- 02:38
others refused believe that we're running out of anything and that we
- 02:41
should just take a chill pill or a handful of them. apart from those last
- 02:45
guys with the mellow vibes everyone agreed that new ways of generating
- 02:49
electricity would be super great, and so the push for renewable energy
- 02:53
technologies began. we're off to the races but it's been a slow race to say
- 02:58
the least and like watching slugs race each other while hauling cement blocks.
- 03:02
yeah it's a gonna replace NASCAR any time. [race track shown]
Up Next
GED Social Studies 1.1 Civics and Government
Related Videos
When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy...
Here at Shmoop, we work for kids, not just the bottom line. Founded by David Siminoff and his wife Ellen Siminoff, Shmoop was originally conceived...
ACT Math: Elementary Algebra Drill 4, Problem 5. What is the solution to the problem shown?