Energyville: Part I - How will you power it?

Energyville Overview
Energyville is a game developed by The Economist Group for Chevron to look at providing energy to a city using various resources. A game that is based on something as intricate as the world energy supply will no doubt have some major assumptions. I've quoted parts of the disclaimer for the game below.

... Assumptions for the game, both present and future, are based on The Economist Intelligence Unit’s assessment of global facts and trends obtained from numerous credible sources... The game has limitations and many elements have been simplified to facilitate game play... Additionally, although you are able to determine how to power your city, the game does not take into account the time and investment needed to replace exiting energy infrastructure with your choices.

Even the best modelers in the world still have difficulties forecasting because there are so many different factors that will affect a global market. However, for the purpose of the game, these have been simplified and many assumptions have been made to make the game work.

This is your city. How will you power it?
The game lasts two rounds with the years between 2007-2015 and 2015-2030. Your city has various energy needs and you must supply enough energy using different sources. Each energy source has been evaluated on three impacts: economic, environment, and security. Simply put, the lower your impact of your city, the higher your score.

The economic and environment impacts are a given because they are typically discussed in the media. "How much will it cost compared to conventional fuel/energy" and "How much CO2 does it emit compared to conventional fuel/energy" are the typical questions that need to be addressed.

Also, I understand the importance of security related to being able to protect the infrastructure and having a reliable source. This is extremely important for the United States because much of our energy (oil/petroleum in particular) is imported and there is a risk associated with not being able to supply your own energy.

However there is one factor which is often forgotten, the "social" impact. At the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro in 1992, leaders from around the world discuss sustainable development and determined that there were three factors that must be taken into account: economic, environment, and social. A diagram of how these three factors interact can be seen in the figure below.

Source: http://www.eoearth.org/image/Sustainable_development_triangle.gif

Unfortunately corporations are forced by their charter to focus on the economic. The only way that a corporation can focus on the others, is if they will make an impact on the bottom line. (See The Corporation for more information about what corporations are and how they work). Recently more attention has been focused on the environmental aspect and corporations are changing their practices to include some environmental impacts (again, only to increase the branding of their company and to improve their economic sustainability).

It is unfortunate that the social aspect has been left out, but nonetheless I have compiled all of the impact values for the game in the table below.


Petroleum is by far the worst (I wonder how much input Chevron had into this game) at a total of 22% and hydro power is better than all of the rest at 8% (if we can assume that all impacts can be weighted equally). I believe that most of the numbers are relatively accurate of the impact with the exception of the economic impact of nuclear. It is rated as the second cheapest option (tied with coal).

Although I don't have access to the data that they use to calculate the impacts, I assuming that the data is only looking at the operational costs of nuclear power and doesn't take into account the huge subsidies that the government has to provide to dispose the radioactive waste. If the true cost of nuclear power was known, I don't think it would rate as well as coal in terms of economic impact.

Powering Your City
In both rounds the user has to power up their city by selecting a portfolio of energy sources. To mix things up, two random events occur between each of the game rounds which will affect your city based on what energy sources you have chosen. For example, international conflicts will cause the economic and security impacts of petroleum/oil plants to increase, thus decreasing your score.

There are limitations to your energy sources and you cannot just build unlimited hydro plants. Also, one point that I thought the game represented very well was the types of energy that were needed. For most of the city, electricity is generated centrally and sent through the grid. However, there are sectors such as transportation that are reliant on petroleum/oil. If you build only energy sources that can only be used for stationary electricity generation you will get the following message:

Warning! Hungville requires petroleum. Though alternative fuels can reduce the need for petroleum, airplanes and significant portions of ground vehicles will continue to rely on petroleum for fuel.

I am glad that they did not gloss over this fact because oil accounts for approximately 96% of the energy needed for transportation with biofuels and natural gas providing most of the remaining 4% with approximately 2% each (Data from the Department of Energy: Annual Energy Review 2006).

How Did I Do?
Playing it 5-6 times I got consistently in the top 5-15% scores. Best score was 688,061,046 which was in the top 3.5%. It is merely about making the least amount of impact and you can do this by looking at the numbers that are given. I think a lot of the players didn't look at the impact of each energy source (about 6% of the energy chosen was hydrogen and oil shales, which based on the data the game gave you, is a terrible choice).

I suspect that the top scores are from people who heavily favor the technologies that present the lowest % gain, and they play it enough such that their technologies aren't affected negatively in the random events.

Rating the game
Overall the game play is pretty bland. All you need to do is pick hydro, wind, and some petroleum in the first round. The second round you pick some more wind/hydro/solar because it has become more efficient. Rinse and repeat and you'll be in the top 10% of the scores out there.

That said, the game offers a wealth of information about each of the different energy sources. Even if the information may be incomplete or is biased towards particular energy sources, the game at least brings the awareness of energy issues and serves as a starting platform for people to learn more.

However, it's not all just fun and games and at the end of the game it is possible for the player to then click on a link to go to the discussion forum. In my second blog about Energyville, I address some of the discussion which is occurring in the forum and offer some of my own thoughts and opinions about energy.

Related Blogs:

• Energyville Part I: How will you Power it?
• Shell CEO Virtually Admits to Peak Oil
  
• The Party's Over - Richard Heinberg: Book Review
• Fuel of War: Article Review

Related Links:

• Life After The Crash
• The Rainwater Prophecy
• Energy Intelligence Blog
  
• Peak Oil Blog

Recommended Books:

• The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century - James Howard Kunstler
• Resource Wars - Michael Klare
  
• The Party's Over: Oil, War And The Fate Of Industrial Societies - Richard Heinberg
  
• PowerDown - Richard Heinberg
  

Recommended Movies:

• The End of Suburbia
• The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
• A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash

The IRS, Tax Protestors, and The Federal Reserve

W2's, 1099's, and 1040's oh my!
The dreaded tax season is coming up. Most people will be getting their W-2's and hoping for a refund. Virtually everyone automatically signs up to have their income taxes withheld and then mail in any remainders after they have filed their tax return. This is typically done without even questioning the system because it is "right" to support the government. But what happens to those who don't file their returns? Wesley Snipes, an actor made famous in the Blade movies has chosen to do exactly that: not pay his taxes.

Tax Protesters
CNN recently posted an article on the Wesley Snipe's Tax Trial which outlines the case and the defense that Wesley Snipes plans to use. The attorney Robert Bernhoft is representing him and has previously represented Joe Banister a former IRS agent (More information on Banister here).

These topics have more or less gone unnoticed and the media has demonized the "tax evaders". But no attention has been focused on why they are avoiding the income tax and why the income tax even exists. If the general public actually knew what the income tax pays for, there would be an uproar...

Income Tax and The Federal Debt
Here's a question for all of the readers out there: What would you do if you were told there was no law for paying income tax? Would you pay it? I'm guessing not.

Even those of you who may be thinking "Well what about public education and highways that are necessary? Shouldn't we pay taxes to support those things?". Schools are mostly funded through property taxes and highways are funded through the gas tax. Where does most of your federal income tax go you might ask? To pay the interest on the federal debt. (For more information why we don't need an income tax, see the movies I listed below and this article.)

The Federal Reserve: It's not who you think they are
Who then is the federal debt owed to? The Federal Reserve creates money and is lent at interest to the United States government. The interest on this debt is paid with YOUR income tax. Having taxpayer money going towards interest seems ridiculous when the government could create its own money interest free. Instead the government uses your income tax to pay off the interest owed to the Federal Reserve. But here's the fact that most taxpayers do not know: The Federal Reserve is NOT a government agency. It is actually a PRIVATELY OWNED, FOR PROFIT, bank! The private shareholders of the Federal Reserve are the ones making money from your income tax!

Crazy you say? There are many free movies on Google Video which go through these topics in depth. The Money Masters is a thorough 3.5 hour history of international banking and the Federal Reserve system. Money as Debt is a 45 minute animated video which goes into detail about money, debt, banking, and the fractional reserve system. Lastly, Aaron Russo's America: Freedom to Fascism discusses the federal income tax and IRS enforcement.

My Thoughts
I only became aware of this issue within the last month and it has completely changed my view on everything. The Federal Reserve has always been put on a pedestal and given credit for bringing economic stability to our country. However, if you watch The Money Masters, you will see that the Fed does not smooth out the economic cycle, but actually artificially creates the economic cycle for their own profit.

There is a reason why Alan Greenspan was considered "the most powerful man in america" or perhaps even the world. By reducing the interest rates to 1.0% after 2001, the Fed fueled the sub-prime mortgage crisis by allowing a tremendous influx of money and spending. When interest rates were raised, those who took out Adjustable Rate Mortgages were then unable to make their payments.

But now the Fed is trying to "correct" the problem after raising interest rates to over 5% in June 2006 by taking a drastic measure and cut interest rates today by 0.75% to 3.5% with more cuts in the immediate future. Regardless of the effect on the U.S. or world economy, the international bankers will profit.

If you are having skepticism on this issue, I completely understand. If someone would have told me this, I would have labeled him/her as a total nut-job and a conspiracy theorist. But after watching those videos I am 100% convinced that the Federal Reserve needs to be eliminated. Although this is a very new topic for me, I plan to blog extensively about this topic because I it is of paramount importance and unlike environmentalism does not get the proper media coverage that it deserves.

I know that most of you have extremely busy lives and that 3.5 hours seems like an eternity for a documentary on banking, but I would highly recommend watching The Money Masters. It WILL change your view on money, the economy, and the banking system.

Remember that awareness is the first step and change will not happen unless we educate ourselves. Please educate yourself by watching movies or reading books and distribute those resources to whomever you can.

Note: The information provided in this blog should NOT be considered advice to avoid paying your income tax. Although it is right to protest a system that is unjust and stand up for what is right, people are still being prosecuted for it. If you want more information about not paying your income tax, look at a free PDF of The Federal Mafia by Irwin Schiff for more information.

Related Links
The Money Masters
The Federal Reserve Bunk
Pay No Income Tax
Liberty Dollar

Recommended Books
The Federal Mafia

Recommended Movies:
All of these movies are free to watch on Google Video.
Money As Debt
The Money Masters
America: Freedom to Fascism

Your Money or Your Life: Book Review

Making a dying

"This is a wonderful book. It really can change your life"
-Oprah Winfrey

Your Money or Your Life by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin is without a doubt is the most influential book that I have read. It challenges and triumphs over the common belief that happiness can be bought. The book forces you to really to be self-critical and determine what actions in your life are worth keeping and those that are completely against your values and beliefs. Consider the following questions:

• Do you wonder where all of your money "disappears" before your next paycheck?
• Do you want to work in a field that is your true passion instead of the job you took for the money?
• Do you want to retire early so you can focus on what is important to you?
  
• Do ever feel excited about shopping but feel guilty when you get home?
• Do you buy something and then never use it after a week or two?
  
• Do you spend more than you earn?
  

If you answered "yes" to any of these questions, then you need to read Your Money or Your Life!

What is Money Anyways?
We typically view money as something we can buy material goods with. Most of the time we forget that in order to get this money you have to use the most precious resource of all, your life energy. If you are 40 years old, you have approximately 329,601 hours left to live based on average life expectancies. It seems like a lot until you calculate that you need to invest 1500 hours to get that luxury car. Is it really worth ~1/200th of your remaining life for some metal and four wheels that costs even more of your life energy to drive, maintain, and insure? This is an example of the questions that you will automatically question once you start following steps towards "Financial Independence".

9 Steps Towards Financial Independence
The first question you might have is "What is Financial Independence?". The 9 steps all lead to this point which means that you will be able to live without having to work for an income. That means your assets (saved money) earn enough interest to support your living costs. Once you have reached financial independence, you will be able to do what is important to you without having to worry about money. That can mean taking a pay cut to work at a job that aligns with your values or quit outright and volunteer for your passion.

I've listed the 9 steps in the Your Money or Your Life program below. If you want more information on the specifics of each step, refer to the summary of Your Money Or Your Life online.

Step 1: Making Peace With The Past
Step 2: Being In The Present -- Tracking Your Life Energy
Step 3: Where Is It All Going? (The Monthly Tabulation)
Step 4: Three Questions That Will Transform Your Life
Step 5: Making Life Energy Visible
Step 6: Valuing Your Life Energy -- Minimizing Spending
Step 7: Valuing Your Life Energy -- Maximizing Income
Step 8: Capital And The Crossover Point
Step 9: Managing Your Finances

A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned
Steps 2-4 are the core of the program. These steps make you track every penny that enters or exits your life and evaluate your expense categories based on three questions:

• Did I receive fulfillment, satisfaction and value in proportion to life energy spent?
• Is this expenditure of life energy in alignment with my values and life purpose?
• How might this expenditure change if I didn't have to work for a living.

The book doesn't tell you how much you should spend on each category such as food, clothing, and transportation. Instead, you must look at each category, and evaluate your expenditures based on your answers to the three questions above.

One of the mantras of the program is "no blame, no shame". The purchases in the past are exactly that, in the past. You shouldn't be ashamed or blame yourself for your previous purchases. The purpose of tracking your life energy is to see if the purchases were appropriate. If they weren't, then you can make changes in the next month. The process is ever evolving and your expenses will naturally move towards your optimal amount of spending.

It seems like a lot of effort to track every penny that you spend or earn, but it is important because it will show you where all your expenses are going. There are a variety of tools (Quicken, Wesabe, Mint) there that can help you with this.

Next Steps
After tracking your income and spending, the next steps include minimizing spending and maximizing income. Your spending will eventually level out and will show you where you get the most value from what you spend. After finding the optimal amount of spending, it is then important to maximize your income so that you can achieve financial independence faster. Once you achieve financial independence, you will be able to live life according to your values without worrying about "making a dying".

Conclusion
Most Americans today are too interested in affluence, material wealth, and "keeping up with the Jones's". Despite all of the new technologies and gadgets that we now have, polls consistently show that we were not as happy as we were 30-40 years ago. Marketing has conditioned us to think that our self-worth is derived from what we drive, what we wear, and most importantly, how much money we make. This is so far from the truth. We should value our friends, community, and self-worth for what we have accomplished in life.

Your Money or Your Life completely shatters the idea that you need material wealth to be happy and I truly think that everyone in America really should read this book. There are many actions that readers can take to bring their values back into their lives.

Most people in the society today will benefit from "down-shifting" from their current high-paced, high-stress lifestyles. Voluntary simplicity is a movement that is gaining popularity not only because it saves money, but it affects what should be most important of all, the quality of life.

There are tons of used copies of this book floating around including on Amazon.com and Half.com and it is also available at most public libraries. Try to find it used or free at a library before you buy it!

In my next post related to Credit/Debt/Finance I will discuss how Your Money or Your Life has affected my spending habits and ultimately my life. Hopefully the book will have the same impact on your life as it has had on mine.

Related Links:

• Your Money Or Your Life Website
• New Road Map Foundation
  
• Get Rich Slowly Blog
• Free Money Finance Blog
  

Recommended Books:

• Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence - Joe Dominguez, Vicki Robin
• Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic (Bk Currents) - John de Graff

Recommended Movies

• Maxed Out

Fuel of War: Game or Virtual Reality?

Fuel of War: Overview
Money on CNN recently posted a new article about Frontlines: Fuel of War, a video game by Kaos Studios. The premise of the game is described by Steve Hargreaves in the quote below:

"Over the last two decades prior to 2030 oil production has peaked and is declining rapidly, renewables never panned out, plagues hit, and starvation ensued."

Hargreaves practically dismisses the issue of peak oil and doesn't get into any of the arguments at all. All he writes is the following:

"Most oil industry analysts say peak oil production is many decades, if not hundreds of years away, and a transition to other sources will likely be more orderly than the scenario depicted in Frontline.

But a small and growing number of experts -- some well-respected -- say peak oil production is close or has happened and the transition will be much more painful than mainstream analysts predict."

It's unfortunate that he doesn't explain or give evidence for either side. But in the end, it appears that this game is getting media coverage and if people buy this game they might get interested in the topic and have an awareness to the issue. Craig Anderson, a profession of psychology was concerned for the players and stated the following:

"It may well change attitudes towards the use of these tactics as a political tool," he said. Players may think "of course we have to use military tactics to go take oil"

It seems that he is unaware about many of the current conflicts in the world centered around resources including, but not limited to, minerals, timber, water, and perhaps most importantly oil (Read Resource Wars by Michael Klare for more information on resource wars or see and excerpt of his book)

Fortunately, the game's general manager is more open to the idea that resource wars are already occurring:

DeLise dismisses such concerns, saying nations go to war all the time over resources, and that the game is merely a reflection of reality.

"When it comes down to it, it's about what countries will do to survive,' he said. 'That's not going to change.'"

My Thoughts

Resource Wars
Resource wars are a reality and are occurring throughout the world today. Many times, resource wars are masked as "religious" because those are for some reason deemed as inevitable and it is acceptable to have wars over religion because they have "always happened".

However, if the wars were truly labeled for what they were, most people probably wouldn't tolerate the wars. For example, most people are unaware of the significance of the Golan Heights and West Bank in terms of water resources. During the Six-Day War, Israel seized both of these territories.

What is their significance you may ask? The West Bank contains many valuable aquifers and the Golan Heights is where the Baniyas River is located. The Baniyas is the direct tributary to Lake Tiberias which later flows into the Jordan River and is a source of water for Israel. Jordan had planned to diver water from the Baniya river, and thus, by seizing the Golan Heights, Israel secured its water supply from Jordan.

If you're interested more on this topic, I would highly recommend reading Resource Wars by Michael Klare. He focuses primarily on resource wars related to water and oil, but has one chapter dedicated to timber and minerals. Also, Water Wars by Vandana Shiva offers more specific information about resource wars over water.

Peak Oil
Peak Oil will soon become a reality for the world (whether it has occurred already or not). Peak Oil has already occurred within many countries around the world in the United States. The only reason why the United States was able to recover from this crisis was because the world oil market had not yet peaked.

But the imminent question is what will happen when oil peaks globally? Many scientists and authors believe that it will be catastrophic and result in wars and violence as described in Fuel of War. Considering that resource wars are already occurring, it is not a far fetched idea that this could happen.

Either way, peak oil will affect every person on this planet. We will not be able to maintain the high energy lifestyle that we currently take for granted. Let's hope for humanity that the world will be able to manage the decrease in oil supply and manage the available resources without having to result to wars.

Recommended Websites:

• Life After The Crash
• The Rainwater Prophecy
• Energy Intelligence Blog
  
• Peak Oil Blog
  

Recommended Books:

• Resource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict - Michael Klare
• The Oil Factor: Protect Yourself and Profit from the Coming Energy Crisis - Stephen Leeb
• Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit - Vandana Shiva

Recommended Movies:

• The End of Suburbia
• The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived the Peak Crisis
• A Crude Awakening

EarthSave.org: Website

What is Earth Save?
EarthSave.org was founded by John Robbins who is the author of Diet for a New America and Food Revolution. He was the former heir to the Baskin-Robbins corporation but turned down away a fortune of money and an "easy" life in order to live a life that was in sync with his values. The website has a tremendous amount of resources for people who are looking to learn more about the health and environmental benefits of a plant based diet.

I have recently became a vegetarian and Food Revolution along with Peter Singer's "The Ethics of What We Eat" strongly influenced my decision. Check out the related blog "My Decision to Become a Vegetarian" for details on how I became a vegetarian.

Our Food Our Future:
EarthSave has an brochure titled Our Food Our Future which is available for free download. The brochure has 16 pages of text and is pretty much a summary of Robbins' "The Food Revolution" book. For those of you who are interested in the idea of a plant based diet but don't have the time to read his entire book, this brochure is a great overview of his key topics. Here is a list of some of the topics that the brochure covers:

• You Can Make a Difference - For Your Health
• Heart Disease
• Cancer
• Obesity
• You Can Make a Difference - For The Environment
• Air and Water Pollution, and Water Depletion
• Energy Use
• Global Warming
  
• You Can Make a Difference - For World Hunger
• You Can Make a Difference - For the Animals

Environmental Impact of Food:
My main reason for becoming a vegetarian is because of the huge environmental impact that animal products has on the environment. Here are some statistics that I have pulled from the "Our Food, Our Future" brochure.

• Amount of fossil fuel energy needed to produce animal protein: 8 times that of plant protein
  
• Amount of water to produce one pound of steak: 2500
• Amount of excrement produced by farm animals in the U.S.: 130 times more than humans

What Can Be Done?

"Other than not driving a car, not eating meat is the second most important positive environmental decision that a consumer can make"
-Union of Concerned Scientists

The general population has recently become conscious about sustainability and environmentalism related to transportation. Increasingly, people are taking action in order to reduce their transportation environmental impact. Some drive hybrid cars, some buy carbon offsets, some carpool to work, some use mass transportation, some bike to work, and some just work from home. The point is that these people want to reduce their environmental impact and have changed their habits.

The same thing can happen for food and the meat/dairy industry. It does not require that every single person become vegan and completely eliminate all animal products in their diet. Any reduction in meat consumption, which is then replaced by a plant based alternative, will lead to a reduced environmental impact.

Some can eliminate beef, some can eliminate eggs, some can eat one vegetarian dish each week, some can eliminate dairy. It does not have to be an all or nothing effort, but every part helps. Hopefully someday soon people will think about eating a steak in the same way they think about filling up their gas tank.

If you are conscious about the environment and do things such as recycling, carpooling, or anything else that has a positive effect on the environment, consider a plant based diet as another way to reduce your environmental impact on our world.

The VegPledge:
For anyone who is interested in trying a plant based diet, you should check out VegPledge. It is for anyone who is willing to make a pledge to reduce their consumption of animal products whether they eat steak on a daily basis or even are lacto-ovo vegetarians. If you pledge to reduce your animal product consumption for 60 days, they will send you a "Healthy Beginnings Care Package" which is a starter pack for vegetarians. At the end of your 60 day trial, you will be given a 6 month subscription to Vegetarian Times Magazine.

Additional Links on EarthSave:

• Health Articles related to plant based diets
• Environmental Articles related to plant based diets
• Lifestyle Articles related to plant based diets
• Download Free Brochures

Recommended Books:

• The Food Revolution: How Your Diet Can Help Save Your Life and Our World - John Robbins
• The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter - Peter Singer

Recommended Movies:

• The Future of Food