Spectral lines: Energy crisis: Seeking the real alternatives, IV

On this page in the previous three issues, we laid the groundwork for a discussion of alternatives to tackling the energy crisis. Meanwhile, the crisis has grown more complex, not only in the U.S. but in other advanced countries like Japan and England. If any point has emerged clearly, it is that threading our way back to normalcy can involve no single neat approach, and, on a corollary basis, defining a “super model” of the crisis is impossible. Rather, the road will involve partial and pragmatic solutions, plus reiterations as missteps occur. Perhaps useful models of small segments of the “world energy system” can be modeled, but this remains to be seen.