For people to understand the issue, Explain in terms of the ordinary experiences of everyday life and the EXTREME interdependcy therein. The best, simple and easy to understand examples will be (1) water coming to the house (2) sewage going out (3) food.
Tremendous amount of infrastructure is maintained to collect water, 'clean' it, pump it into house and then pump it out; the equipment and machinery and energy needed to keep it running all the time, and the chemicals needed to 'clean' water and for 'sewage treatment'; and where do you get this equipment and chemicals; who manufactures them and where; how much energy is needed at each stage; and who manufactures this energy.
What happens if anywhere the chain is broken? (This is the concept of extreme interdependency). The entire water and sewage systems breaks down and the society (at least in the cities) stops functioning, the business, industry and commerce stops functioning.
Similar is the situation with food with the added complexity that processing of food in our plants requires tremendous amount of water.
I say, forget explaining the energy for car and planes; just talk about survival (i.e. water and food); once people understand that, then the rest will be easy. Forget about too much intellectualization; just give practical examples.
Currently, our society is push-button oriented. Just push the button and get water or food, without realizing the underlying processes and interdependencies. De-emphasize money (and insurance) and emphasize processes and everyday living experience (with and without energy or water or food).
Romesh Chanderromeshchan@aol.com
