re: #33 albusteve

bashing deniers is fine…so what’s next?…you expect them to change their minds?…shouldn’t there be a plan B?

Plan B is to advance the science and engineering of green solutions. The perfect win would be if green energy became outright competitive with coal and oil. Those would shortly be abandoned as inferior and expensive sources of electricity, and that would be that.

If, sadly, the laws of physics or our own inventive limitations mean that we absolutely cannot achieve that, then what improvements we do manage will still be very important. If we can bring down the cost of solar by a factor of 2 over the next decade or so, the massive construction of solar energy installations that must eventually come can be twice as massive, in terms of solar energy garnered, for the same price. Ditto for wind.

At the same time, we have to clear away, rather brusquely, all environmental and NIMBY objections to wind and solar. If it means bird kills, or desert lizard displacement, or fractious condemnations of power line easements over private property or state parks or national parks, tough. Priorities must be set. The birds are cute and all, but the survivors will lay a clutch that encounters less competition and they’ll recover. Naturally, attention should be paid to minimizing these unfortunate aspects of green energy, but we must keep our eyes firmly on the big picture.