Reply #27: We need to plan now for carbon neutrality [View All]

[GliderGuider]

We always get less than we ask for, and if we are satisfied with asking for interim measures we will be screwed in 20 years.

Personally, I'm horrified by the thought of increasing coal use. If we put the money and skull-sweat into renewables we might be able to soften the Peak Oil downslope without damaging the world. I worry that using more coal will simply guarantee that our kids inherit a toxic cesspool. I also worry that the conventional energy inustry in general, and the coal guys in particular, are so powerful and their worldview so entrenched that we will just keep barreling down the hydrocarbon highway until we run out of pavement. Humans are monstrous creatures of habit.

The problem is too big for us to meekly accept modest solutions. The convergence of oil depletion and global warming has all the makings of humanity's perfect storm. We need to start thinking a little bit bigger than Kyoto.