(April 20, 2020 at 11:57 pm)AFTT47 Wrote:(April 20, 2020 at 7:43 pm)onlinebiker Wrote: We are not talking about quitting smoking - where you can just cut back a bit - and eventually you can do without.....
To maintain the population level at the current consumption levels - you need a certain level of input energy to do it. Without fossilized hydrocarbons or a serious investment in nuclear (and that's a pollution nightmare for hundreds of generations) we are fucked.
You are a moron if you think rooftop solar and a few windmills is going to do the job.
You simply do not understand the scale of the problem - so you just assume somebody will find "the answer".
You are mistaken. It's true that roof-top solar won't do it but solar farms along with wind turbines and some nuclear and hydro will. It will take time - hence the generally accepted timetable of 2050 as a realistic goal.
I would have agreed with you just 10 years ago but we have reached the point where photo-voltaic panels are now the most economical way to produce power. It wasn't long ago when they were the least economical way to do it.
Then there is fusion. We can't afford to count on that holy grail but if it comes, energy production ceases to become an issue. We will be in a post-scarcity society.
I don't want to be blindly optimistic but I think it goes without saying that the prospect of extinction tends to light a fire under one's ass. We'll get it done.
Ahhhh yes....
I wondered how long it would be before somebody dragged the deus ex machina of fusion out of their ass.
It's clung to like a xtian waiting for Jebus to come back and make it all better....
