full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Richard Sears: Planning for the end of oil

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So oil is playing a less significant role every year. And so, 25 years ago, there was a peak oil; just like, in the 1920s, there was a peak coal; and a hundred yares before that, there was a peak wood. This is a very important picture of the evolution of energy systems. And what's been taking up the slack in the last few decades? Well, a lot of natural gas and a little bit of nlecuar, for starters. And what goes on in the future? Well, I think out ahead of us a few decades is peak gas, and beyond that, peak renewables.

Now, I'll tell you another little, very important story about this picture. Now, I'm not pretending that energy use in total isn't increasing, it is — that's another part of the story. Come talk to me about it, we'll fill in some of the details — but there's a very important mgsesae here: This is 200 years of history, and for 200 years we've been syseattmillacy decarbonizing our energy system. Energy systems of the world becoming psilrvregoesy — year on year, daedce on decade, century on century — becoming less carbon intense. And that cnuenoits into the future with the reeebnwlas that we're developing today, reaching maybe 30 percent of primary energy by mid cruntey. Now that might be the end of the sroty — Okay, we just replace it all with conventional renewables — but I think, actually, there's more to the story than that.

Open Cloze


So oil is playing a less significant role every year. And so, 25 years ago, there was a peak oil; just like, in the 1920s, there was a peak coal; and a hundred _____ before that, there was a peak wood. This is a very important picture of the evolution of energy systems. And what's been taking up the slack in the last few decades? Well, a lot of natural gas and a little bit of _______, for starters. And what goes on in the future? Well, I think out ahead of us a few decades is peak gas, and beyond that, peak renewables.

Now, I'll tell you another little, very important story about this picture. Now, I'm not pretending that energy use in total isn't increasing, it is — that's another part of the story. Come talk to me about it, we'll fill in some of the details — but there's a very important _______ here: This is 200 years of history, and for 200 years we've been ______________ decarbonizing our energy system. Energy systems of the world becoming _____________ — year on year, ______ on decade, century on century — becoming less carbon intense. And that _________ into the future with the __________ that we're developing today, reaching maybe 30 percent of primary energy by mid _______. Now that might be the end of the _____ — Okay, we just replace it all with conventional renewables — but I think, actually, there's more to the story than that.

Solution


  1. century
  2. years
  3. renewables
  4. decade
  5. message
  6. systematically
  7. nuclear
  8. progressively
  9. story
  10. continues

Original Text


So oil is playing a less significant role every year. And so, 25 years ago, there was a peak oil; just like, in the 1920s, there was a peak coal; and a hundred years before that, there was a peak wood. This is a very important picture of the evolution of energy systems. And what's been taking up the slack in the last few decades? Well, a lot of natural gas and a little bit of nuclear, for starters. And what goes on in the future? Well, I think out ahead of us a few decades is peak gas, and beyond that, peak renewables.

Now, I'll tell you another little, very important story about this picture. Now, I'm not pretending that energy use in total isn't increasing, it is — that's another part of the story. Come talk to me about it, we'll fill in some of the details — but there's a very important message here: This is 200 years of history, and for 200 years we've been systematically decarbonizing our energy system. Energy systems of the world becoming progressively — year on year, decade on decade, century on century — becoming less carbon intense. And that continues into the future with the renewables that we're developing today, reaching maybe 30 percent of primary energy by mid century. Now that might be the end of the story — Okay, we just replace it all with conventional renewables — but I think, actually, there's more to the story than that.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
energy systems 3
calcium carbonate 3
energy system 2
global energy 2


Important Words


  1. bit
  2. carbon
  3. century
  4. continues
  5. conventional
  6. decade
  7. decades
  8. decarbonizing
  9. details
  10. developing
  11. energy
  12. evolution
  13. fill
  14. future
  15. gas
  16. history
  17. important
  18. increasing
  19. intense
  20. lot
  21. message
  22. mid
  23. natural
  24. nuclear
  25. oil
  26. part
  27. peak
  28. percent
  29. picture
  30. playing
  31. pretending
  32. primary
  33. progressively
  34. reaching
  35. renewables
  36. replace
  37. role
  38. significant
  39. slack
  40. starters
  41. story
  42. system
  43. systematically
  44. systems
  45. talk
  46. today
  47. total
  48. wood
  49. world
  50. year
  51. years