Sorry, but the transition from Type 0 to Type I isn't anywhere
near to beginning, much less almost completed. Let's take a look
at it.
Searching the web for information on Kardaschev's system yields
a tremendous number of references to the squishy concepts of
energy of a planet, energy of a star, blah, blah, blah. What the
hell is this? I thought this was a scale, not some silly heuristic.
The only document I could find that contained actual numbers for
the Kardaschev scale (1) gave these as the important figures:
- Type I: total energy consumption of between 1016 and
1017 watts/year.
- Type II: total energy consumption of between 1026 and
1027 watts/year.
- Type III: total energy consumption of between 1037 and
1038 watts/year.
What this says is that when humanity's total power consumption reaches
1016 watts/year we will have begun the transition to Type I
and that when it reaches 1017 watts/year we will have
completed said transition.
So how close are we? According to (2) worldwide energy consumption for 1996
was approximately 380 quadrillion BTU. That works out to 1.1 * 1015
watts, or about one-tenth of what we need to begin the transition. Obviously we
aren't even close yet.
(2) also projects that global energy usage will reach 600 quadrillion
BTU in 2020, or about 1.75 * 1015 watts. Clearly, we are still
a long way from even beginning the transition.