Vaclav Smil: The Future of the Planet

Author and distinguished professor, Vaclav Smil, is interviewed by Andrew Revkin about the future of the planet. This discussion was part of the Q2C Festival in 2009.

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[thedeeliciousplum]

@CuevasFelipe Ok... I'll start from 22m44s.

[CuevasFelipe]

@thedeeliciousplum I have already transcribed to english text until time 22:44, it takes me about 10 to 12 min to transcribe 1 min of video so anything you can do is welcome. Lets share at felipeicm(at)yahoo.com

[thedeeliciousplum]

@CuevasFelipe Hi CuevasFelipe, Please send me the time that you have translated up to. I'll translate what I can and then I'll send it to you.

[CuevasFelipe]

@thedeeliciousplum, I wonder if you would like to colaborate with me to transcript Vaclav Smil conference (or revise the transcription) so more people can see it, since Mr. Smil has a hard accent for non-native english speakers. I already transcripted 40% and also pretend to translate it to spanish.

[Redial694]

49:30 - I'm not sure about the Taliban and China, but I'm quite sure Ray Kurzweil predicted the fall of the USSR right after predicting the rise of the internet. The internet was predicted by him in in the mid 80's I believe. However, Dr. Smil's point is still valid - there are some things that can be reliably predicted on the large scale, but you can't reliably predict the secondary and tertiary effects. I.e. the internet was the core prediction, USSR was secondary with more error.

[Redial694]

@bilbo9981 Sure - it's a great solution if you don't mind supplying the local inhabitants with a new freely accessible source of drinking water.

[thedeeliciousplum]

Thank you so much for sharing this talk. Youtube is filled with way too many nonsensical talks on the environment. Vaclav Smil actually shares a clarity building understanding of some pressing issues. Thanks again!

[LsBaba]

Even if we had the means to support 10s of billions of humans, what about the impact of this on the other inhabitants of our shared planet?

We need to reduce population growth.

[Selinja]

3:14 "If the world wants to replicate US and Canada, there is no hope for anybody."

I loled :D

[bilbo9981]

My hand is raised! I know about shale, oil and natural gas fracturing, but I'm surprised at how few people in this audience do not know of this technique.

There is no shortage of natural gas, just an absence of determination to provde for the availbility of refill stations, so that trucks and auto have access to CNG. It is the answer, but there are forces organizing even against this energy.