Food,
Energy, Transportation, Urban Design, Climate for an Eternity without Oil!
An Image to Strike Terror
Into the Heart of Every Urban Planner
1.
Why ever should a picture of combine harvesters
perturb in the slightest the average city planner? Because, in the near future,
we won‘t have any, nor the wheat, nor the bread that enables only 4% of our
population to produce food for all of the rest of us, and for the world! The prime and primal
issue of our times is the near future, within the next 60 years, when there will
certainly be little petroleum, and all that is left must be preserved for the
production of more durable goods, such as fertilizers, pesticides,
pharmaceuticals, and plastics.
In such conditions, we
will need to have already built a global infrastructure that gets all of its
energy from nuclear and renewable sources, while providing access to food,
energy and transportation. Rail and maglev vehicles and trains will be
preferred, as they use only 1/3 of the energy/passenger mile that cars and
aircraft use, and can be powered by renewable sources! The sooner that we can
get a novel rail based transportation network built, the more petroleum we will
have for generations that will exist 2,000 and 4,000 years from now! Please bear in mind that the last 2000
years can be reduced to only 20 times the 5 generations that we have met in our
own families (20 x 20 years/generation x 5 generations = 2000!).
2. The specific
challenges that we must all address are:
A) the production of food without
petroleum – there were approximately 100 million Americans in 1915 and 21.5
million horses (=5:1) to help us to produce food. Now we are 304 million
Americans with only 6.9 million horses (=44:1), few of which have ever seen a
plow let alone pulled one! How will we produce food without their help, no
petroleum and when much of the best farmland has been paved over?
B) Where do
we get energy from when more than 40% of our total energy demands and more than
99% of the fuel we use in our cars, trucks and farm equipment that is currently
provided by oil is gone?
C) Can we do anything to slow down and reverse the
global climate change that we have been so adept at creating? Can we create the world’s first 100%
sustainable infrastructure, knowing that everything that we make, use and do
within the next 50 years must be 100% sustainable, including stabilizing the
world’s climates, if we want to maintain the world’s populations at their
current levels? My project is one of the first to comprehensively address and
design for all of these globally life threatening issues using currently
available technologies!
3. Before the age of the automobile in 1900, 60.4% of the American population was classified as rural, and was reasonably able to walk into fields and to cultivate their own food. Now, only 4% of rural residents make their living farming, the last time most Americans lived on farms was in 1880, and the last time the majority lived in rural communities was in 1920. We will have an enormous challenge to feed, clothe, employ and transport Americans when there is no more oil. We presently consume 26% of the world's oil, but have only 4% of the world's supply! We must use the most energy efficient form of transportation, trains, the only feasible long-term energy sources, renewables of all kinds and nuclear, and the close proximity of all residents of new buildings to food production areas, which is only possible using linear-form cities!
The no Oil Era is on our doorstep! Without intelligent action on the part of all who plan the future, we are condemning the babies of tomorrow to an almost certain death, as global populations shrink from the present level of about 6.85 billion to the 1.6 billion that existed in 1900, or less with the present loss of valuable farmland to over-fertilization, salinization from deep-well irrigation from disappearing aquifers, asphalization to make roads and parking lots, and the conflicts that inevitably arise as all populations shrink!
This website is a call to
a vision of an entirely new future, one that is arguably 100% and eternally
sustainable. It may also be described as a new paradigm, as I
developed these observations as I staggered, walked and jogged more than 330
miles to recover the abilities to walk, speak, remember and all the other post-natal skills
that I lost when my heart stopped for 10 minutes following a car accident in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa
in 1980.
Land, Population,
Transportation and Food without Petroleum:
World and American populations are dispersed across the
continents roughly as indicated in this satellite image of Earth lights at night, bearing in mind that Americans consume 5 times as much energy per capita as Europeans, and 20 times the global average:
The
low-lying areas along the East and West Coasts, and Mississippi River Valley and
Gulf Coast could all easily disappear under the rising sea levels, to say
nothing of European, Asian and Indian populations in low-lying areas!
This is a
mathematics problem: how to supply over 4 times the world’s people on land and
energy supplies that are likely to dwindle even more than they are now, and
were in 1900! We have paved over some of the best farmland here in the United
States, for example. We have used fertilizers and pesticides, both of which
come from petroleum to create the “Green Revolution” and, in some cases, poison
the land.
There are
ways to sail around this problem as sea levels rise, however, using modern
technologies in novel ways, as follows:
Why live in the long ribbon,
linear city on the left when you can live in something as exciting as the Burj Dubai on the right, for
example? The answer comes down to simple, 7th grade mathematics:
lines have a far greater perimeter than circles, which have the minimum that is
mathematically possible.
Please compare the 2
figures below that have
roughly the same area but vastly different perimeters:
These
differences are compounded when you
stack the circles on top of each other to create the building on the right above,
which is superb in the views and sense of power that it creates, but poor when
all its inhabitants must walk into fields to grow their own crops because there
is no more petroleum to produce food and bring it to where people can eat
it!
Please
consider too that all of our 
cities are circular, not linear, forms that give few people access to fields to grow crops. Please
see the image of Los Angeles on the right!
Why should this
make a difference? After all, technology has been directing us toward the heights for at least a century,
the same century that has been
driven largely by petroleum, and the mobility that it has given
us.
What happens
when we no longer have that mobility, and we have to walk into the fields, much
as our ancestors did before we had cars, trains, ships and aircraft, almost all
driven by petroleum, except on the wiser continents?
Can we still grow food if
we cannot get to fields to plant the crops by hand? Can we still harvest food
if we cannot grow it, organically using the latest methods, because at least
50% of us are stuck in cities, 40% more in towns, and only about 1% within
walking distance of fields?
I therefore
propose linear cities like that on the right, where everyone
can walk from where they live into open
fields, both to grow their own food, and to
supply those who are still stuck in existing
cities, and towers like that above!
The Orange tunnel
contains a high-speed rail line, along with medium
and low-speed lines, which are the only form
of
transportation outside of bicycles, some boats
and electric cars that can be driven by
electricity.
Everyone lives within a 10 minute
walk of their own field, chickens and fruit trees, and all can very rapidly
reach the existing cities using the high-speed rail links, which use only about
1/3 of the energy/passenger mile that cars and aircraft use.
The wind turbines along the top edge of
the north to south linear city capture the energy of wind that has been
accelerated as it passes over its 3 – 5 stories. Expressways can be used
deliver building materials to build linear cities just alongside, as below, and
we can start by installing wind turbines first 1), followed by both high-speed
rail and “high temperature” superconducting induction tracks in the roadway to
drive electric vehicles, giving them unlimited range 2), followed by the
construction of the linear cities themselves 3):
The photos below show the same process, with the intermediate stage of elevated
platforms a) for quick-change battery pit stops for autonomous electric
vehicles. All residents are within walking and cycling distance of fields, as
below:
3. Add the Linear Cities with their own turbines and access to fields for everyone to grow their own crops!
The
Linear Cities follow the expressways in the center as described above, and go
more directly between the existing cities (shown in black) on the right. The
blue lines above indicate the linear cities A) in the photographs below that
run north and south, the red lines indicate the linear cities B only) below
that run east and west to link the north to south cities.
Second Milestone: 100% Sustainable
We’re all going
to have to work together on this one, to make this planet 100% sustainable
before we run out of time, energy, and good will toward each other, which has
happened all too often in the past!
What can
we do to cut our energy use to a fraction of the selfish multiples that Americans have
consumed in the past? We can design cars that use gas turbine/flywheel or battery hybrid motors, illustrated right, that will burn almost any fuel, including biomass, and that are innately safer, see below:
The shape of the body allows for “crumple and slide”
zones that will do even more to avoid liquidizing our bodies in the case of
accidents – please read the green areas above as being relatively rigid, and
the yellow areas as being pliable, with triggers to detach normally hard
structures, such as front suspension A arms, a).
The “A” pillars, c), however are very strong to carry
the weight as the nose of the impacting car slides under the inclined surface,
b), to press the impacted car’s occupants along their backs into their seats,
with which they already have contact. The rear underside of all cars is equally
inclined, d), to press the occupants of the impacted car into their seats.
All vehicles will be much lighter in weight, because
heavier vehicles use far more fuel, and much more aerodynamic because poor
aerodynamics also adds considerably and exponentially to a vehicle’s fuel
consumption!
Gas turbines have the following advantages:
- They offer a
high-powered engine in a very small and light package. However, they are not as
responsive and efficient as small piston engines over the wide range of RPMs
and powers needed in vehicle applications. In hybrids, gas turbines reduce the
responsiveness problem…thus overcoming the slow throttle response
characteristic of gas turbines in land vehicle applications.” according
to the excellent “Gas Turbine” article on Wikipedia.
- I believe
that in a turbine-flywheel (illustrated) or turbine battery hybrid configuration, or both, gas turbines will give us all the power that we
need, in a small and compact package, with the added bonus of burning almost
every gaseous and liquid fuel and, properly adapted, even some bars of biomass
and coal (horrors!), to make them much more adaptable to the conditions that
our children’s genes will face!
Third Milestone: 100% Sustainable Water Transportation!
We must design
and build much more rapid sailing ships that get all or most of their energy
from renewable sources, and quickly eliminate today's highly polluting ships
burning “bunker crude” that will not be able to sail due to lack of
fuel, in any case, soon.
With the imminent demise of our fossil-fueled economy, we must already,
this minute, rapidly develop a 100% sustainable transportation, energy and food
producing infrastructure! The land-based paradigms are discussed above, but we
must also consider what to do about transportation at sea, especially if we are
unable to fly conventional aircraft after the end of petroleum. We must absolutely
transform what is the dirtiest form of transportation in terms of high-nitrogen
and high-sulfur fuel use, the dumping of “black”, “grey”, and bilge water that
can contain invasive species, into much cleaner, sustainable and attractive forms of
transportation.
The Hovercat uses an aluminum, composite or steel catamaran hull, with
hovercraft capability between the hulls to lift them out of the water so that
the kites can pull the ship forward fast enough to enable the hydrofoils to
work. All the kite sails are computer controlled and are attached to “domes”
that double as elevated air intakes for the hovercraft. Once sufficiently underway, the hovercraft capability can be turned off as the hydrofoils are able to maintain the vessel out of the water.
The dark blue tinted glass bridge is movable from port to starboard to permit more accurate maneuvering in close quarters and small ports. As cargo and passenger vessels, they are roll on/roll off with fail-safe bow and stern closures, light weight, high maneuverability, speed, and fun!
The Hexcat again uses
the hovercraft and hydrofoil technologies, with a novel kitesail launching & deployment arrangement that can put many kites into the sky, both to increase the traction of the available wind, and to reach winds that may be stronger, or in a more favorable direction further aloft. As with the Hovercat above, the hydrofoils are retractable so that both ships can launch from and return to
beaches and concrete launching aprons. Both are envisaged for use as cargo
ships, passenger ships, or both at the same time.
Why not harness this technology to
make transoceanic journeys even more
efficient by linking many craft together?
Please see the illustration below
for a caterpillar configuration that
may just become the monarch of
the seas! 
I don't think that the weight of the sails/kites and rigs is an issue as kites now have helium filled bladders in their leading edges to
get them out of the water and
into the air.
This concept has 2 launching masts in carbon fiber that pull the kites out of a launching chute at the bow
(orange and/or yellow). The above illustration shows an existing hovercraft that is capable of carrying 3 Hummers and substantial containers with equipment. As existing kite
sails are capable of pulling
kite boarders completely out
of the water, see the illustrations
below, one of the functions
of the hydrofoils is to keep the craft in the water and not launched to a
height where the landing could be damaging!
I am sure that the day of the end of petroleum is coming soon and, even if it is
not soon, we need to keep the maximum amount of petroleum unburned both to
preserve the atmosphere and for use in the production of sails, plastics, pharmaceuticals,
fertilizer and pesticides, so that we can continue to eat!
Why
not extend this concept to wind-driven
flight using recycled and lightened aircraft
fuselages, after there is no more fuel to power
them? This concept uses tethered wing keels
that also have wheels to roll directly onto rails
for continued trans-continental journeys once
the trans-oceanic part of global voyages is
finished – eg. Chicago to Moscow non-stop!
Fourth Milestone: Proposals for the development of philosophies that
explain everything around us in much better, useful and 100% Sustainable ways.
The history of civilization is perhaps 4000 to 10,000 years old, of
which we are most familiar with the last 2000 years, which is an incredibly short time! If you divide that 2000 years by
the 20 years that is roughly the period of the “average generation” according
to the variety of definitions that are available, we have 100 generations back
to the year 0, a date and year that we in the West know well. Most of us know 5 generations in our own families, from grandparents to
grandchildren, including ourselves. If you divide 100 generations by 5, you get
20, so it is only 20 times the generations that we know personally in our own
families back to the year 0, which is
absolutely incredible! It is only 20 times the generations that we know in
our own families that include almost all of reasonably recorded history.
We have done an incredible amount in a very short time, from the first
sailing ships on the Nile 4000 years ago, the first cuneiform writing in
Mesopotamia in 3500 BC, and marks on tortoise shells from China dating from
6000BC, the last of which makes all of human history only 80 times the
generations that we know in our own families! And, if we were to measure in lifetimes of 50 years rather than in
generations of 20 years, that multiple would drop from 80 to 32, only 32 times
the lifetimes of those that we know in our own families back to the dawn of
civilization, and they didn’t even realize what they were starting, just as we
don’t, as we look forward into a future without petroleum and the start of
potentially catastrophic global climate change. Those who cannot dream, cannot advance, cannot survive!
This discussion of generations is important because we can quickly see
how important, how crucial, each of the generations in our families is! If one
person in that chain had failed to live past the age of 15, we simply wouldn’t
be here, as are the “ghosts” of those who failed to reproduce. We cannot cry over our own history, or that of those who are not here,
but we can plan for the success of the generations that will follow ours so
that they can enjoy life to the full! What can you do for your children and
grandchildren to give them both confidence and joy to face their own futures?
What insights can you give them from your life so that, at an early age, they can
make plans to make their lives and those of their children the most fruitful
and enjoyable?
As I was staggering, walking and jogging the more than 330 miles to
relearn how to walk, speak and remember in 1981 - 3 after my car accident and cardiac arrest, the thought came to me
that each one of us is the “genetic reincarnation” of our parents, and their
parents before them etc. Therefore, we are both precious and steps toward their
eternity, as our children are to us, which makes the lives of both children and
the women who give them to us incredibly precious! But, look at these two
groups as the most tortured and abused on the planet, and we have to ask
ourselves how many people understand how important women and children are to us
all! If the components of our genes are the keys to our eternity, why the Hell
are we abusing them?!
My abilities after my cardiac arrest were a fraction of what they had
been before the accident; the respect that I had been given at the top of my high school class was also far higher than the treatment
that I was given by some who knew me within the first 5 years, starting in a
wheelchair, who either tried to run off with my wife, or fired me 3 times from
jobs that would have been child’s play for me before the accident, for example.
I believe that I can put flesh on the bones conceived by Darwin when he
wrote about evolution, in this case human evolution, and give specifics for how it is that humans have risen
to the top of the evolutionary pyramid. What is the value of all the above?
Simply that humanity has never skated so close to the edge of a vast precipice,
where to fall now will be to erase a large part of the 6.85 billion people now
living on this planet. We were 1.6 billion in 1900, before we started to use
petroleum with its effects on food production, lifestyles, and the development
of technologies and medicines.
Where will we be when we fall back to the same levels of fossil fuel
energy inputs that prevailed 100 years ago? Where will we be in 2000, 4000, and
10,000 years when we haven’t had access to petroleum for 99% of that time? The
time to act is now, this very minute. Everyone must look up from what they are
doing and consider what their great great great great great great great
grandchildren might be able to do if we do nothing, in the absence of any
systems to provide for energy, food, jobs, housing, civilization, education,
and a future for our genes, every one of them!
This article is dedicated to the components of the genes that we all
carry, and that we have all shared throughout our history. Long may they live,
100% sustainably!
Please email with any comments for the creation of the world's first 100% sustainable infrastructure to:
Mr Kim Gyr, humansolutions@greenmillennium.eu
Let's go full speed ahead for the preservation of all our children's genes! 