Lopsided Economies

Take a look at this map.

It's an interesting statement about how large the economies of each US state are. It's also interesting in it's sheer totality as the notes say, the total US GDP almost equals the next four economies: Germany, Japan, China, and the UK.

What I think of when I see this information though is the quandary of alternative energy. Often when Phil and I talk to people about peak oil or energy alternatives people immediately gravitate toward solutions, or what they perceive to be solutions, like wind, solar, hydro, etc.
The reality is that none of these alternatives alone can match the amount of energy oil offers.
All of these alternative used together looks a lot better but still can't match what we get from oil.
Think about how much easier it must be for one small country to refocus their attention on renewable energy as opposed to how difficult it is for that to happen here in the US.

The operative word in a discussion about energy alternatives is scalability. The amount of energy used from oil in the US is astronomical. But scaling up an alternative like ethanol would require vast amounts of farm land for corn production. That's farm land that grows food for people. It's not easy to create a balance there and when folks are changing what they grow with a profit mindset, they often don't consider the impacts.

For a more informed discussion about biofuels specifically, David Fridley is the guy to talk to.
Here he is making the case.