The World in 2030

The World in 2030 223
‘Water decomposed into its primitive elements
and decomposed, doubtless, by electricity, which
will then have become a powerful and manageable
force… Yes my friends, I believe that water will one
day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and oxygen
which constitute it, used singly or together, will furnish
an inexhaustible source of heat and light, of an
intensity of which coal is not capable. Water will be
the coal of the future.’ 430
Jeremy Rifkin, whose book ‘The Hydrogen Economy’ is
regarded as one of the great polemics for hydrogen energy,
suggests that not only does hydrogen have the potential
to provide us with carbon-free energy storage, but also has
the potential to allow us to re-design the world’s energy
distribution systems in such a way that will have far-reaching
effect in social organisation:
Were all individuals and communities in the world
to become the producers of their own energy, the result
would be a dramatic shift in the configuration of
power: no longer from the top down but from the
bottom up. Local peoples would be less subject to the
will of far-off centers of power. Communities would be
able to produce many of their own goods and services
and consume the fruits of their own labour. But, because
they would also be connected via the worldwide
communications and energy webs, they would be able
to share their unique commercial skills, products, and
services with other communities around the planet.
This kind of economic self-sufficiency becomes the
starting point for global commercial interdependence