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Page added on October 11, 2011
Jeremy Rifkin: The Third Industrial Revolution
The world is doomed to repeat four-year cycles of booms followed by crashes if we don’t get off oil, Jeremy Rifkin warned a Climate One audience in San Francisco on October 3. The solution, what he calls the Third Industrial Revolution, is the “Energy Internet,” a nervous system linking millions of small renewable energy producers.
For Rifkin, author of the new The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy and Changing the World, a seminal event occurred in July 2008, when the price of oil hit $147 a barrel. “Prices for everything on the supply chain went through the roof, from food to petrochemicals. Purchasing power plummeted all over the world that month. An entire economic engine of the Industrial Revolution shut down,” he said…
“Every time we try to re-grow the economy at the same growth rate we were growing before July 2008, the price of oil goes up, all of the other prices goes up, purchasing power goes down, and it collapses.” This is a wall we can’t go beyond under the current energy regime, he said. “We’re in this wild gyration of four-year cycles, where we’re going to try to re-grow, collapse, re-grow, collapse.”
The solution is a plan based on five pillars, which is being implemented in the European Union: 1) Renewable energy targets: such as the EU’s 20% by 2020 mandate 2) Green buildings: over the next 40 years, Europe plans to convert its 191 million buildings into energy-efficient, micro power plants 3) Energy storage: batteries, flywheels, and hydrogen used to smooth the intermittency of renewables 4) “Energy Internet”: create a central nervous system so that buildings can talk to the grid and sell or store power depending on prices 5) Plug-in electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles…
6 Comments on "Jeremy Rifkin: The Third Industrial Revolution"
PrestonSturges on Tue, 11th Oct 2011 5:12 pm
Alvin Toffler had more insights in his little toe than Rifkin, who is a professional gadfly and naysayer but hardly a visionary.
Plantagenet on Tue, 11th Oct 2011 6:18 pm
I”m no fan of Rifkin, but he deserves credit for pointing out that our economic problems are largely caused by high energy prices associated with peak oil.
DC on Tue, 11th Oct 2011 6:20 pm
Rifkin still pushes his hydrogen economy fantasy, even though he should be smart enough to realize its a expensive, energy sink that will never work, or materialize. The rest of his insights are hardly any better.
xsos on Tue, 11th Oct 2011 10:31 pm
I believe he is wrong. The amount of free capital has to grow. You need more wealth in circulation when prices rise or get by with less. Those two things can be viewed as the wage price spiral/inflation and conservation. Prices will settle at a higher level, in a few years more capital will be in circulation and growth can begin again at the newer inflated level. Of course, dont forget the fact North America is on the verge of breaking all time oil production levels on a B/Day basis and new oil discoveries all over the world because of higher prices. Thats where the wealth will come from to expand the capital in circulation.
john hall on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 1:44 pm
Back in the 1980’s,you couldn’t pick up a newspaper or magazine without reading
about Rifkin attacking Biotechnology.He
filed numerous lawsuits against it.His main objection was that scientists and
biotech companies were rushing to use this technology without all the facts.He
raised concerns and issues and warned of
unforeseen consequences.But now,with his
Third Industrial Revolution,Rifkin’s
doing the exact opposite.He’s getting
people all riled up and excited and
anxious to jump on the Third Industrial
Revolution bandwagon and make the switch
to renewable energy.The problem here is
that Rifkin’s not raising concerns or
issues with renewable energy like he did
with Biotechnology.He’s not questioning
the cost and safety of hydrogen storage
and the reliability of solar panels and
wind generators and their impact on both
society and the enviorment.
GregT on Sun, 13th Dec 2015 2:59 pm
“I”m no fan of Rifkin, but he deserves credit for pointing out that our economic problems are largely caused by high energy prices associated with peak oil.”
What happened Planter? You’re actually beginning to make some sense lately. Is that really you? Or has somebody else logged in with your username?