What is the energy-future for the earth?

Good points Papa, are you saying we should prevent these countries from industrialising and keep the goodies to ourselves, or are you saying they should give work to us by letting us build them (out of cleaner energy of course) on their behalf?

None of us are likely to live long enough to see a GLOBAL solution to Man's rape of the Earth's resources. The last five years have witnessed a steady retreat from the Kyoto agreement.

Get used to breathing a polluted atmosphere in exchange for the freedom to own personal private transportation.

Before we force less-developed societies, where people enjoy fewer luxuries than we, to cut their emissions, we must indeed legislate to restrict the abuses that individuals here can perpetrate against the biosphere. We can't tell India that it must stop mining coal (of which it has the 4th largest reserves in the world?) for domestic and export use while we allow people to drive cars that get 10 or 20 miles to the gallon and they're driving Ambassadors that get 30-odd.

I don't think that humanity will pollute itself out of existence, but I do worry that we may pollute ourselves back into the sort of death rates that we haven't experienced since the acceptance of germ theory. Humans won't become extinct, I suspect, but we may in the comfortable west be harshly reminded of how fragile and mortal we are... we'll survive, and maybe even thrive as a species, but that doesn't preclude millions of avoidable premature fatalities.

I think the cold, hard reality here is that we're going to have to start working on alternative energy sources in earnest. I don't mean stop-gap measures like wind and solar power that can be finicky and aren't suitable for all climates (not to mention that solar and wind farms take up A LOT of space). I mean more exotic forms of energy like zero-point energy, cold fusion, harnessing the massive amounts of energy found in a single cup of water. For instance, when a submarine moves too quickly, it causes tiny air bubbles in the water to heat up hotter than the sun's corona. We're talking millions of degrees (F). It's technically known as cavitation and sub skippers try to avoid it since it gives away the sub's position. But, if that could be controlled and used, it would virtually solve our energy dilemma.

The problem though is that any of these energy sources would cause the collapse of many a financial empire. Thus there are forces at work to suppress energy sources that do not involve fossil fuels. Nikolai Tesla is a fine example. He was on the right track to discovering some of these exotic - and FREE - sources of renewable energy. However, when his financial backer (who I believe was George Westinghouse) found out what he was doing, Westinghouse immediately pulled all of his funding saying, "If I can't put a meter on it and charge for it, I'm not going to fund it." Later, when Tesla died, his house was ransacked and ALL of his scientific notes were taken. To this day, they have never been found.

I believe that we have the technology and the know-how to end our dependence on fossil fuels - some say the US military has already has exotic forms of energy - but because free and renewable energy sources would fundamentally change the world as we know it (for the better), there are forces at work to keep such technology out of the hands of the average person. The automobile is a good example of this. The cars of today are vastly more advanced than a car of even 20 years ago. They have GPS, navigational equipment, proximity sensors, amazing sound systems, DVD players with HDTVs, and some can even park themselves. BUT, the heart of the car, the engine, is still the same old dirty, inefficient, environmentally unfriendly internal combustion engine that we've been using for over half a century. That has not changed. Why? Because the oil industry wants us to keep going to the pumps ... they don't want cars that can get 100 mpg because we would spend far less on gasoline (petrol) than we would with a car that only gets 20 or 30 mpg.

These financial empires will undoubtedly have to be sacrificed in order for our world to not only advance technologically, but also to equalize the standard of living for all nations ... not just the West and the industrialized East.

.... or to put it another way. Global International Companies are far stronger than any Government.

The problem with the future supply of energy and the control of climate effects of current energy use is that all production and distribution of energy is owned by components of the exploitative capitalist machine.  The entire process from research through exploration, extraction, transportation and consumption is informed solely by rampant profiteering with the added bonus of free money from tax-payers via various government grants.  The necessity of energy for the world to function means the ownership of its production is a sure path for the owner to continuous and limitless riches, and greater riches can always be acquired if there is less concern for environmental and local negative consequences.  This diametric opposition of energy manufacture to human comfort is true of all known energy options and methods of extraction, whether they are labelled as environmentally-friendly or otherwise.  

The unashamedly reckless exploitative energy industry includes wind and solar power as equally as it includes fracking for gas, drilling for oil and nuclear power.  The comparison of nice energy like wind to nasty energy like nuclear is ignorant because either can be wholly safe to both people and environment but also either can be damaging and very expensive; how safe, and also how efficient either method of energy production can be is dependent on the prevailing international economic system.

Fear-mongering about energy consumption is wrong.  Greater and greater energy efficiency, both power efficiency and cost efficiency, should always be a goal, but that efficiency is the responsibility of the producer of energy not of the consumer.  Greater efficiency is achieved through technological developments and through better infrastructure.  The possibilities for much improved efficiency are boundless.  Energy resources such as nuclear, solar, wind and thermal will outlive humanity.  The obstacle to efficiency (and the cause of pollution) is capitalist recklessness and unfettered greed, not human consumption of energy.  A retardation of human comforts is not necessary in order to safeguard access to energy.  The potential for endless energy resources exists.

One day, human scientists will discover/develop a means of producing limitless energy. Already we've come a long way from rubbing two sticks together to make fire, and "safe" nuclear energy may be just around the corner. Unfortunately only Capitalism has the resources unless all the World's governments were to unite on a development programme. But don't hold your breath for that.

In the meantime it is impractical to turn our backs on fossil fuels and renewable sources.

oftenwrong wrote:One day, human scientists will discover/develop a means of producing limitless energy.  Already we've come a long way from rubbing two sticks together to make fire, and "safe" nuclear energy may be just around the corner. Unfortunately only Capitalism has the resources unless all the World's governments were to unite on a development programme.  But don't hold your breath for that.

In the meantime it is impractical to turn our backs on fossil fuels and renewable sources.

I beg to differ. There is no free lunch. If Newton were alive today, he would add that line to his laws on thermodynamics. Nothing will ever be limitless and there is nothing that we can do that will have no side effects. The root of our problem right now is that there are far too many of us and either, a minority of us live to a standard that our ancestors could never even dream of or we all live in increasingly humble conditions ... eventually everyone on Earth wallows in poverty and want. We have to limit ... curtail .. our fecundity immediately.

Don't you think there may be enough energy for Man's needs inside a single volcano?

All you need is a harness of some kind.

oftenwrong wrote:Don't you think there may be enough energy for Man's needs inside a single volcano?

All you need is a harness of some kind.

Boy, if you get that one wrong, ...

I haven't got it either right or wrong. Far cleverer people than me will be learning how to harness Solar Power, or the incredible energy trapped inside the Globe which we inhabit.

They've made a start with heat pumps.

We have a solar panel on the boat - has got us out of trouble more than once

What's wrong with this picture?

Haiti, probably the poorest Country in the world, leases one of its beaches to a Cruise Line. Labadie is rented-out to Royal Caribbean.

Locals are not admitted unless they are Catering staff.

What's wrong with that?

From a long time ago oftenwrong as you can see, nobody answered your question or carried on the thread.
What is wrong with the picture? no cameras allowed.
Presumably when you are catering staff you do not go near where they do not want you to see?

In a nutshell, money talks. Energy will always require someone to invest the money on making it available in a usable form. The Earth has enough heat in its core to keep us warm for several million years, but at what cost?

Is it that it's going to be expensive to obtain oftenwrong? or the fact that like some inexpensive to the user that stops investors?

I did hear that in many parts of the world (including England) you could generate enough electricity from solar power to supply the entire grid - that's a comparatively cheap source of power, and by the time it wears out the human race will probably be extinct or have emigrated to a better planet

04/06/2014 · An energy firm has said it is not planning any more solar farms in Oxfordshire because the national electricity grid cannot cope.

http://www.oxfordtimes.co.uk/news/yourtown/oxfordshire/11254020.Firm_scales_back_solar_farm_plans_as_the_grid_can_t_cope/

well, there you go - don't know why we need nuclear at all

Also of course all the dangers that go with anything Nuclear boatlady.

Perhaps we could do without the gas-guzzler motor-car. The Victorians did, and look how much they accomplished.

I've recently bought a tricycle

Perhaps we could do without the gas-guzzler motor-car. The Victorians did, and look how much they accomplished.

I do believe that most energy guzzling contraptions where developed in Victorian times, including the Horseless Carriage (Motor Car).

It wasn't me Guv it was them Rotten Victorians wot did it.

Well we have to blame somebody do we not?

© Fabrice Coffrini/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

They spent $10billion on building a DARTBOARD?