The next energy crisis?
Column by Sirhan Irfan, Mumbai, July 15 2050:
30 years after the Oil Wars the world teeters on the brink of a new crisis over energy. I call it Peak Enzymes.
The development of almost limitless energy through the harnessing of the Calvin-Benson photosynthesis cycle relieved the energy crisis and turned back the clock on carbon emissions - it was also supposed to end the need for energy wars, forever.
Now, a shortage in the crucial enzymes needed to power Calvin-Benson generators is leading to sabre weilding by India, disgruntled by the unreliable supply of enzymes by the world's largest producer, the Euro Republic.
This week, India placed its Kinetic Weapons Satellite System (Code named Kartikeya) in geostationary orbit over the ER capital, Berlin. The ERthreatened an immediate pre-emptive strike against the Kartikeya satellite unless it was re-deployed over the North Pole and India complied, claiming that the movement of the satellite was coincidental and not related to current tensions with the ER. But the gesture has not gone unnoticed inside the walls of the Bundestag.
The ER National Enzyme Consortium claims to have abundant enzyme production capacity and promises new efficiencies will boost production. However, the ER's enzyme production peaked at 6 million megaunits per day in 2044. Since the last new production facility was opened in 2047 and is already operating at peak capacity, where will they find the new efficiencies they promise to deliver without the necessary supply of water to feed the breeders?
Furthermore to keep up with the ever-increasing demand, they would need to open several massive new production facilities every year.
The fact is they aren't.
Both public opposition and the prohibitive cost of building new facilities which comply with stringent ER safeguards virtually guarantee no new facility can be built in the EU, and to date, generic factories outside the ER and China have failed to match the production output of the superior ER enzyme technologies.
The world does not want to contemplate a future of new energy scarcities but I believe that the EU authorities are "whistling past the graveyard" to keep the world from getting scared.
Column by Sirhan Irfan, Mumbai, July 15 2050:
30 years after the Oil Wars the world teeters on the brink of a new crisis over energy. I call it Peak Enzymes.
The development of almost limitless energy through the harnessing of the Calvin-Benson photosynthesis cycle relieved the energy crisis and turned back the clock on carbon emissions - it was also supposed to end the need for energy wars, forever.
Now, a shortage in the crucial enzymes needed to power Calvin-Benson generators is leading to sabre weilding by India, disgruntled by the unreliable supply of enzymes by the world's largest producer, the Euro Republic.
This week, India placed its Kinetic Weapons Satellite System (Code named Kartikeya) in geostationary orbit over the ER capital, Berlin. The ERthreatened an immediate pre-emptive strike against the Kartikeya satellite unless it was re-deployed over the North Pole and India complied, claiming that the movement of the satellite was coincidental and not related to current tensions with the ER. But the gesture has not gone unnoticed inside the walls of the Bundestag.
The ER National Enzyme Consortium claims to have abundant enzyme production capacity and promises new efficiencies will boost production. However, the ER's enzyme production peaked at 6 million megaunits per day in 2044. Since the last new production facility was opened in 2047 and is already operating at peak capacity, where will they find the new efficiencies they promise to deliver without the necessary supply of water to feed the breeders?
Furthermore to keep up with the ever-increasing demand, they would need to open several massive new production facilities every year.
The fact is they aren't.
Both public opposition and the prohibitive cost of building new facilities which comply with stringent ER safeguards virtually guarantee no new facility can be built in the EU, and to date, generic factories outside the ER and China have failed to match the production output of the superior ER enzyme technologies.
The world does not want to contemplate a future of new energy scarcities but I believe that the EU authorities are "whistling past the graveyard" to keep the world from getting scared.
