Energy of the Future

A world powered by dazzling, clean, limitless energy technology: “It’s not science fiction—it’s our science future.” If you were God for a day, what kind of energy would you choose to power civilization?

Looking at the planet God created, the choices currently being exploited seem few and largely unappealing. Oil, natural gas, coal: These provide an enormous amount of energy, but are terribly polluting and non-renewable: finite—here today, gone forever. Already the world is confronted with “peak oil”: On both an absolute and per capita basis, the amount of oil to run the world’s economy is declining. Global recession has reduced oil demand over the past three years, thus temporarily avoiding the effects of $5-per-gallon gasoline—and $5-per-loaf bread. But our reliance on a finite resource to power a growing society is obviously problematic and unsustainable. We are approaching a crisis point. Demand is outpacing supply, and some scientists say a crisis is coming sooner than we think—or that it has already begun.

Read more at “Are Minivan-Size Suns the Energy of the Future?”

Fine Art

Is vandalizing art a good way to save civilization, or destroy it?

In a quiet annex of the cathedral at Valletta, Malta, is a small exhibition on the Italian artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Caravaggio lived in Valletta and produced some of his finest works there. In dim lighting sits one of these masterworks, Saint Jerome Writing. I saw the painting for myself last month while visiting Malta.

Read more at “In Defense of Fine Art”