This is a great story and whenever people have talked about sustainability, as a technician most of my life, hobby & experimental DIY type, I can't help but think that there is always a price. "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction".
So when looking at anything in a sustainable way, there are always losses somewhere along the line. I think that's one of those theories I had a hard time with in Maui High Science class regarding sustainable power.
Mr. Yano , my science teacher, and I would go around and around over this point, luckily not a sustainable discussion either.
Being more into farming, especially aquaponics and looking at my power usage, water usage, food or any outside inputs, versus what I get out is a typical situation where there are as many ways to change things as there are thoughts.
It's usually the thought that's missed or ignored that really makes the losses apparent.
My water consumption is nearly 1/2 what it was trying to grow food in small garden plots. I have a 100+ fish working for handfuls of feed I bought, but could work around and munching Taro leaves, roots and algae as almost on-going treats. In exchange I made a pot of stew full of taro leaves, I have tomatoes in the refridgerator, celery and leaks ready to harvest because those fish kept the nutrients coming. If I want, which has become the hard part, I could be eating good sized tilapia and two types of catfish at least a few times a month.
Yet there are losses to evaporation, balances need to be maintained and an awareness level is part of that.
Now humans might try to find a way to cut down on the need for people to maintain a system like this through automation, remote monitoring, etc.. Since it's only me I am not likely to put myself out of work, although when I have good clothes on and ready to leave the house, only to discover there is an issue that I can't hand off to someone else or leave to later, automation giving me an alert maybe before I showered would be nice.
The point is really, this system could be bigger done better and with a few people to help, feed more families.
It may not be perfectly sustainable, but it could be darn close.
It's when that need for "stuff", as George Carlin did a great piece on, and the super sized, foods, toys and just some much of what we see in stores, is what drives the economy. We will see yet another example of the past.
Read this AP article and you'll understand more of what I am saying. History has a way of repeating itself.
Is technology a job killer? A few history lessons ---------->AP researcher Judith Ausuebel in New York contributed to this story. You can reach Bernard Condon on Twitter at http://twitter.com/BernardFCondon
