re: #22 brownbagj

Well, if nuclear is no longer an option, what do we do? Wind, solar etc can’t foot the bill for the whole world or even the US.

It has to be oil short term, nuclear mid-term (and long-term) and then ultimately nuclear mixed with various levels of solar, wind etc.

We can’t live in huts. All energy resources have pros and cons. Unless we can get the entire world to decide to stop growing economies, population etc, we have to get the energy from a real and sustainable source.

What is “sustainable” about oil? We’re talking a finite resource, with most of the easily-accessed pockets drained dry or close to it. The longer we stay on it, the more money we’re going to have to sink into one of two things: researching cleaner methods of obtaining it or cleaning up after the dirty methods that currently exist. And that’s before we get into boondoggles like oil shale, which will require billions in investments just to get online.

Oil isn’t the future, it’s a crutch that we’re unwilling to shake. Why? Because we’re more worried about our pocketbooks than we are about our future as a species.