General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsEnergy Policy Ignores the Elephant in the Room: Saving Us from Global Warming and Peak Oil
In current thinking, the issues presented by global warming concern using less fossil fuel and replacing that energy source with alternativeclean energy. We are all familiar with the options that are on the table: solar power, wind power, ethanol, and nuclear power. Oh and I suppose for accuracy one should add clean coal. There is also modest incremental talk of conservation.
However, there are problems with all of these solutions. Clean coal, which requires the deep burial of carbon dioxide, will never be politically or economically viable. For one, the energy companies want to be left off the hook legally if the gas should happen to escape its underground habitat and kill people. Then theres the problem of removing mountaintops and the resulting environmental degradation to access the coal.
Nuclear power, at least nuclear fission, has the inescapable and unsolvable problem of what to do with the nuclear waste product that will remain radioactive for thousands of years. Nuclear fusion, which would be safer and produce less radioactive waste is still experimental; a test reactor is under construction in France.
The remaining green options are generally agreed not to have the capacity to provide anywhere close to our massive energy needs. And even the green options, including electric cars, would need massive amounts of energy
generated by fossil fuels, of course
to be financially viable. Corn ethanol, which has only thrown world corn markets into a frenzy resulting in increased food costs for the poor, has been proven to be worthless as an energy saver.
If one is objective, one therefore has to say that all the talk about substantially reducing our carbon footprint through the use of alternative energy sources just is not very realistic, given our current and future dependence on energy, which will just get worse as the world population grows and more of it experiences modern development.
And as one thinks about this issue, it is important to remember that there is another energy-related catastrophic event waiting to happen out there
its not just global warming. At some point in the future
whether its starting to happen already as some argue or will happen in 20 or 50 or 100 years
we will reach peak oil. The availability of oil then will be drastically reduced and the price of what oil is available will skyrocket to unimaginable heights.
So if one is trying to plan for the future, the inescapable question that must be addressed is how can modern man live, with a reasonable level of creature comfort (one must be practical), using only a fraction of the energy that is being used today. Only if that question can be realistically answered is there any hope for mankinds future. If that question is not answered, sooner rather than later our economies will collapse, our standard of living will evaporate
the world will become a very ugly place, not all that different from the futuristic world depicted in Mad Max. We will have destroyed ourselves, not by nuclear weapons, but through our insatiable greed.
I certainly do not have the answer. Whats scary though, is that I am not aware of any great minds or think tanks that have addressed this issue and come up with various models for how we could live using only a fraction of the energy being used today. No one seems to be thinking or talking about this. This goes way beyond what could be achieved through conservation, energy-efficient appliances, green buildings, and the like. This would most likely require a massive change in the way we currently live.
To my mind, government and industry must join forces in a project even larger than the fabled Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb. The future of our children, and certainly our childrens children, will depend on whether and how this issue is addressed.
For more on this and other issues, see my blog, http://PreservingAmericanGreatness.blogspot.com
FogerRox
(13,211 posts)The Manhattan Project took a theory, did some R&D and built something. The current state of Solar, Wind, Hydro and HVDC is such that strictly off the shelf items need be employed, except for large scale renewable storage systems.
No one seems to be thinking or talking about this.
You're right in that a solid solution based proposal is not in the limelight, I agree that we need to talk about energy policy and global warming, but all to often people that do talk about the issue, complain & whine, offering a path put of the woods is far more important, offering practical solutions.
My own try at a path out of the woods
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/12/1006264/-A-jobs-stim-proposal-that-creates-7-to-10-million-US-jobs?via=blog_694100
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)Such as the major oil companies have privately accepted the reality of climate change and have developed long range business plans around the opening of new fields and new shipping lanes as they publicly denounce and fund the deniers.
I think there has been a lot of discussion and realities shown to the best & brightest thinkers. Since the only options available to address the problem are very detrimental to profits and Wall St in general. They have decided the best option is to plunge full speed and hope someone can come up with an answer to the destruction we have caused before it's all over virtually guaranteeing the mad max wasteland you spoke of.
Luckily the children of the great minds and great corporations will be spared the most horrible ramifications of the coming changes. For the short run at least.
All we can do is speak with our money by refusing to take part in the schemes and machinations of the 1% and know that at least we did our part to not leave tracks of misery for the people to tomorrow.
izquierdista
(11,689 posts)Which is to build the power plants deep underground, where they can be abandoned in place. See this article: http://books.google.com/books?id=LQsAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=rogers+underground+nuclear+bulletin+atomic&source=bl&ots=Xx19qzKbF9&sig=AkgkUqKhpxnJTuDCHAFADw0Z1BA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Y_dTT7O_LqLh0QH4oOW0Dg&ved=0CCEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=rogers%20underground%20nuclear%20bulletin%20atomic&f=false
Has anyone thought to pursue this option? No. Could a Chernobyl or Fukushima type problem occur with plants built as in the article above? No.
libtodeath
(2,888 posts)no idea how to get to the moon in 1960 but we did it.
Get rid of politicians that are puppets for the oil barons and put our national will and resources to green energy and it would happen.
natrlron
(177 posts)that this is not a problem that can be solved by a green energy policy. We must drastically reduce our energy needs. Period. Then they can be satisfied by green energy alternatives. What no one is talking about is a model for how we can live in the way.