Jancovici : Can we save energy, jobs and growth at the same time ? 08/01/2018 on HackerTube: recommended by 6 Hacker News commenters across 6 separate months, 2019–2023.
lecture · intermediate · evergreen
Jean-Marc Jancovici lectures at ENS Paris on whether energy use, jobs and growth can all be preserved. He argues for a physical approach to economics, since resource depletion and climate limits make perpetual GDP growth unrealistic.
Recommended as a sober, physics-based account of how energy underlies the economy.
“this doc illustrates the enormous realities of energy challenges with sober clarity often exposed by Jancovici”
6 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
Jancovici is a legend. Listenening to him and reading his latest comic book ( Le monde sans fin ) made me very aware of climate issues and directly influenced my behavior. He deserves to be better known by international audiences. Here are some of his talks in english: - ▶ this video - [link]
in “France to Build Six New Nuclear Reactors” · View on HN
I haven't read anything that I've felt covered it fully. If you want something easy to consume on our economy and technological progress essentially being getting better at converting energy to productive work you can check out this somewhat decent link from Jancovici: ▶ this video It meanders a bit for the first 5-7 mins, but does a decent job of making the argument. Min 40 also has another pretty good slide. It does go into covering recommendations which I'm not necessarily recommending, but it does accurately summarize our economy as one of energy transformation. The best analogy in it is this. Right now if we need to do construction and dig a 10ft x 10ft x 10ft hole we can pull out a backhoe and be done in a min. If we with all of our current knowledge had to do it without consuming energy we'd be digging by hand with a shovel, and no faster than someone pre-industrial would. When you start looking at every industry you come to the same conclusion. All of our technological know how boils down to just better ways to be more productive in converting energy. But fundamentally consuming energy to be productive is the modern economy.
in “WTF Happened in 1971?” · View on HN
Jean Marc Jancovici is one of the most vocal of we can call "Nuclear ecologist" around in France, the content is amazing and he definitely have a point if you want to follow [0]. He is a realist, but in this field we need to go beyond and to open big money for the research into small and decentralized nuclear power. Every citizen have to know the pros and the cons, and be educated to the risks. Energy provide good living standards, but we have to know the drawbacks and we have to account for externalities in every business model. This will be the only way to keep our standards of living and keep an habitable home. [0] ▶ this video
in “Macron says France will build new nuclear energy reactors” · View on HN
this doc illustrates the enormous realities of energy challenges with sober clarity often exposed by Jancovici ▶ this video
in “Climate experts call for 'dangerous' Michael Moore film to be taken down” · View on HN
There's a much much simpler explanation for the stagnation of real GDP. You have to look at energy consumption (joules / year). The correlations are uncanny and seem to explain just about everything. ▶ this video [link] [link] It's so simple and accurate that I have no idea why doesn't everybody know about this. It better than discovering central banking.
in “Stagnation and Scientific Incentives” · View on HN
Another really interesting conference [1] about energy, economics and physics. Bill Gates is right and the path to reduce our greenhouse gas emission won't be easy. [1] ▶ this video
in “Cheap renewables won’t stop global warming (2018)” · View on HN