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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 1976)
THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 1976 Page 5 tts Specific countries face a crisis l know be|. 1 w ovkom : applicable me nt, ami SPCBcon. a land, f 0 , :en ?st 'Stained by May 21 to Station 1 A Cavitt 'L Busines- ? to sponsor 3-7930 bet • weekday Energy shortage is not worldwide “It seems likely that the world will plagued hy energy problems for a ngtime to come,” reads the first ntence of a new book, ‘‘Man, nergy, Society,” by Dr. Earl Cook, ■an ofthe College of Geosciences at was A&M University. The book, published by W. H. reemanand Company of San Fran- sco, is now available in soft and aid back editions. “At present there is no worldwide nergy shortage," Cook said. “Why len nas there been so much talk of n energy crisis?” From these seemingly contradic- ri There ij jry statements he weaves a tale of no entn be history, origin and geography of day’s energy problems. Cook’s present research and teaching interests are in environ mental and resource decision making, especially energy and min eral resources. He has been a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on National Materials Policy and presently is on the committee surveying the risks of nuclear power. “The world’s capacity for produc ing crude oil at present exceeds the consumption,” Cook said. ‘‘The known reserves of coal would last for several hundred years at the present rate of extraction. We have only started to consume the global supplies of nuclear fuels. ‘When we look into this question, we find that an ‘impaired availability’ of energy to specific countries — not a worldwide shortage of energy — is the cause of what is commonly called the energy crisis,” he explains. A shortage of gasoline, fuel oil, and clean coal for power plants may exasperate a country like the U.S., hut hardly constitute a crisis, he said. The U.S. can decrease its energy consumption by improving efficiency. “A true energy crisis remains par tially veiled hy the energy problems of the moment and hy a persistent faith in technological salvation,’’ Cook says. “This crisis does exist and is growing because of the increas ingly rapid depletion of nonrenewa- ble resources, including those of energy, and the fact that these re sources are very unevenly distri buted throughout the world. 8 k traffic Fower 308, >ENT : 203. 'I 6 p.m. STATION :ommittet, 1. WARDS 31 m. iRLE SI D aradise,"S r Theater. ace, tour or just ride; icycle club offers fun By DAVID ROOP The A&M Wheelmen, campus bicycle club, offers something for pearly anyone who is interested in ivcling. If you want to race, or tour, brjust take a leisurely Sunday after noon ride, chances are you would |finda member of the organization to ) along with you. The Wheelmen meet in the MSC Ion the first and third Tuesdays of the nonth, at 7:30 p.m. They also meet, Jmore often than not, on the high- Iwaysand byways of the area. There ire 25 or 30 people who regularly Iparticipate in Wheelmen activities, jsaid Jerry Guthrie, who was presi- Identofthe club last year. Every Wednesday evening at 6, |the Wheelmen have a night ride. These are social-recreational Irides with the purpose of uniting Icampus cyclists for an enjoyable |ride, Guthrie said. The distances are short and the Ipace slow, with the routes covering Isome of the less traveled streets in I Bryan and College Station. The rides |l)egin at the Rudder Center foun- ain. For those who aren’t discouraged Iby long distances, the Wheelmen Ihave a 25 mile ride every Sunday lafternoon at 2. Occasionally they Ihave time trials; that is, a 10 mile [rideagainst the clock. However, said |Guthrie, “you don’t have to he a acer." Riding bicycles, however, is just a [part of the Wheelmen activities. “We do a lot of things oft bicycles, [too,’said Guthrie. Members of the [club have the use of a set of specialized bicycle tools, and are happy to help repair bicycles or give [technical advice in upgrading them. Once a year the Wheelmen hold a bicycle auction, selling abandoned bicycles which the Campus Police have found. Profits are given to the ! Campus Chest. “We also do little service things, | like talk to Girl Scouts,” Guthrie said. “This morning we talked to 50 third-graders at Johnson Elemen tary school about hike safety. The A&M Wheelmen, of course, has its members who are serious cyc lists, and it is the only active col legiate cycling team in the state, Guthrie said. There are four to six sanctioned bicycle races in the state each semester and the Wheelmen send up to six racers to each event. As for touring, Guthrie said that “most of the tours we do are like, let’s ride to Austin this weekend! Not spur of the moment decisions, but personally arranged between the members of the club. We have rides to Austin or Houston, whenever the need arises and someone wants to go.” The club does send racers to one or two touring events a year, and Guthrie recently competed in the “Tour ofTexas,” a 200-mile ride from Dallas to Tyler and back. Cyclists must register bikes to ride or park on campus You’re riding along on your new ten-speed bicycle and ZAP! you’re pulled over by a policeman who pro ceeds to issue you a ticket. You’re flabbergasted! You had heard that a bicycle must he regis tered to park on campus, hut never just to ride on campus. But it must be. To ride, park or carry your bicycle in your arms on campus, it must he registered. Chief O. L. Luther said the purpose of the issuing of tickets was simply to get all bicycles on campus registered. At the present time, there are 4,497 hikes registered and Luther said he estimated there is a minimum of 7,000 bicycles on campus daily. There are two benefits if you regis ter your bicycle. First, it keeps you from getting more tickets. Second, if your bicycle is lost or stolen, it can he identified quicker. There are two violations for which you can receive tickets. A moving violation consists ot running stop signs or having no hands on the handlebars. Parking violations are those in which the bicycle is unregis tered and parked. Moving violators are fined two dollars and parking vio lators one dollar. If you are ticketed because your bicycle is not registered, you can pay for a permit and not have to pay the fine. A permit for a year costs $1.50 and lasts from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31. “For the industrialized countries, the crisis may be delayed by the dis covery and installation of new energy-delivery systems and by more frugal use of fossil and nuclear fuels,” he declares. “But, mankind must fall hack eventually on renewa ble forms of energy, and there is no assurance that energy from renewa ble sources (solar, geothermal, or fu sion) can be made available at rates and costs compatible with a high standard of living. ” Cook says there will come a point where improvements in technology will produce very little work gain. Then technology will be unable to overcome the increasing cost of find ing and using energy stores that be come deeper, leaner, and farther away from the centers of use, al though there will still be oil and coal in the ground. In the final chapter of the book. Dean Cook paints a scenario of three different energy fates we would adopt (or suffer). “There seems to he three pos sibilities: continuation of the high energy, unsteady, growth-oriented state; transformation to a high lei sure, almost-steady state; or retro gression to a low energy state,” he said. The first alternative would press beyond the capacity of the environ ment to absorb wastes, of society to consume goods, or of human beings to put up with one another, and high instability is the expected result, he explained. The second choice could be a pat tern of conservation that might pro duce a high leisure, almost steady rate of energy consumption, that will be like North America today. If fos- sile fuels are stretched out by con servation and solar energy could be developed to replace them, this state of society could “endure for hun dreds or even thousands of years.” The final option, he says, would he to return to a low energy state. The great difficulty is that it can he done only hy lowering the living standard and life style. “Most workers would he back on YOURSELF TO BARKER PHOTOGRAPHY’S EKTACHROME PROCESSING SERVICE 1 TO 2 DAY DELIVERY WEDNESDAY NIGHT “GREEK NIGHT” LAST GREEK NIGHT UNTIL FALL SEMESTER ^ PRICE DRINKS FOR GREEKS the farm and the maintenance of high agricultural production would be more important than high pro ductivity per worker,” Cook exp lains. “Because social security in the present sense would he economi cally impossible, all able-bodied old sters would be at work, many of them in the fields. There would he no unemployment. “The medical definition of crisis makes it the time or stage when it becomes a matter of certainty whether the patient is to live or die,” he said. “The real energy crisis is that kind of crisis, and we have reached the stage in human affairs when a revolution in thinking is re quired if the patient is to he alive and healthy a hundred years from now. ” For The Graduate SINCE ie<36 soft tip pens An ideal gift to say “well done.” Classic design and traditional quality Cross soft tip pens in Lustrous Chrome. Gold Filled or Sterling Silver. Free engrailing with pur chase of any Cross pen. EMBREY'S JEWELRY 415 University Drive 846-5816 Monday-Saturday 9-5:30 807 TEXAS AYE. OPEN 7:00 P.M. 846-9513 Not if it’s an extraordinary Pilot Razor Point marker pen. A fiber-tipped pen so precisely balanced, it will always feel comfortable in your hand, even after hours of writing. Its sturdy plastic point, surrounded by a unique Pilot metal “collar” writes a distinctly smooth, sharp line. In fact, it’s the thinnest tipped pen you can buy. And that makes it just great for pages of notes or that one important love letter. Best of all, it’s only 69c and is now available at your college book store. So if your Pilot pen makes you lovesick, don’t be ashamed to admit it. After fPILOTlfinellne marker pens. Pilot Corporation of America, 41-15 36th St.. Long Island City, N.Y. 11101 Battalion Classified Call 845-2611 Sun Theaters 333 University 846-9808 The only movies in town. Special Midnight Shows Friday A Saturday $2.00 par parson No one under 17. Escorted Ladles Free ALL SEATS $3. $1 off with this ad. Starts Friday May 7 A man of wisdom and strength raised his staff and crushed an empire. This is his story. 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