Pictures of the Future    Spring 2006

@ My dear Li,
Finally I have found time to write to you. You see, time seems to be moving more and more quickly as my journey takes me further from my little village. It was only this morning that I was sitting on my old bicycle and pedaling my way to the bus station. It took me almost an hour to get there by bicycle—to travel a mere 10 km. But as you well know, I’m not exactly a youngster anymore, and the road to the station is dusty. Right now I’m sitting in a strange train that doesn’t have any wheels. Instead, it hovers over a magnetic field. I changed to this train back in Hangzhou. It looks like an arrow and covers the distance to Shanghai in a flash—160 km in only 20 minutes! Thirty years ago, it would have taken me hours to get there. I’ve tried looking out the window, but it made me dizzy. The countryside races by so quickly that I can’t even make out the farmers in the fields. But come to think of it, there probably aren’t any farmers and fields out there these days. All I can see is high-voltage power lines, wide highways and cities. Then I tried to concentrate on a screen that showed the speed at which the train was moving. That was a mistake. We were traveling at 430 km/h, and that just made me queasy again. But the man sitting across from me has been very helpful. He told me exactly what was flashing by outside. What he said was interesting, and it helped me to relax. These gigantic power lines, for example, can conduct energy over distances of more than 1,000 km, without any loss at all. The energy comes from power plants that produce virtually no exhaust emissions. I’m afraid I have to close now, because my battery needs recharging. The gentleman across from me also has a laptop, but his has a strange, transparent display. He says it can be used continuously for a whole week. It is powered by a fuel cell, which runs on a special kind of alcohol. Just like I always told you: A stiff drink can be good for you—and now even for computers, too!

@ Dear Li,
I have left the present day behind and arrived at a destination in the future. When I was last here, Shanghai was like an ant hill. Now it’s a racetrack made of glass and steel—and twice as big as it used to be. I must admit that I feel a little lost amid the throngs of people in streets overshadowed by enormous buildings. Unlike before, though, everything is much more orderly and even the air is cleaner. A police officer explained to me that most cars today are hybrid vehicles with electric motors, and some even run on hydrogen. The traffic is controlled by telematics systems, which is why there are fewer traffic jams now. Most people prefer to use Shanghai’s subway, though, which is a huge system. And I joined them when I found out it’s the most convenient way to get to my hotel. But you won’t believe what I saw underground: As I was boarding the subway, I noticed these trains have no drivers! They run fully automatically. That made me so uneasy that I tried to get off, but I couldn’t—the crowds of people boarding the train simply pushed me back in. So I just closed my eyes and hoped that I would arrive safely at my stop. It turns out I had no reason to worry. The trip went smoothly, and the train was very fast. By the time I opened my eyes again, I had arrived. The best thing is that you don’t even have to get off under your own power—you’re just carried along with the other passengers. My hotel, which you so kindly booked for me, is located right on Suzhou Creek. When I last visited, the creek stank and was filthy, but today the water is blue and clear. On the creek bank, I chatted with a friendly man who told me this is thanks to an ingenious water treatment technology that has greatly improved the water quality. He suggested that I should drink a glass and see for myself, but I told him I would prefer to go to the teahouse a few meters away.

The Right Energy Mix
Conserving resources for the future means relying on the most effective mix of energy sources: geothermal energy, power plants with unprecedented levels of efficiency, and combined power / seawater desalination plants
^{see Power Plants and Desalination}