Search The Oil Drum with Google
Recently on TOD:World
TOD:Local
- Streets: Utilitarian Corridors or Livable Public Space
- Summer Streets a Success!
- Plan for Hydro-Fracture Drilling for Unconventional Natural Gas in Upstate New York
TOD:Europe
- Oilwatch Monthly - November 2008
- The 2008 IEA WEO - Production Decline Rates
- The EU Strategic Energy Review: maybe not so depressing after all
TOD:Canada
- The Round-Up: October 24, 2008
- Compressed Air Energy Storage - How viable is it?
- Oil Megaproject Update (July 2008)
TOD:ANZ
Blogroll
Energy Sites
- The Coming Global Oil Crisis
- Die Off
- Dry Dipstick
- Energy Bulletin
- From the Wilderness
- Life After the Oil Crash
- Peak Oil Crisis
- Peak Oil News and Message Boards
- Powerswitch
- Rigzone
- Matthew Simmons
- Wolf at the Door
Environment & Sustainability Sites
- The Daily Green
- EcoGeek
- Eco Street
- Green Car Congress
- Green Options
- green.alltop.com
- Gristmill
- RealClimate
- Sustainablog
- Treehugger
- WorldChanging
Blogs
- The Big Picture
- Casaubon's Book
- Cleantech Blog
- Clusterf
k Nation (Jim Kunstler) - The Cost of Energy
- David Strahan
- The Energy Blog
- Entropy Production
- European Tribune
- GraphOilology
- jeffvail.net
- Mobjectivist
- Peak Energy (Australia)
- Peak Energy (USA)
- R-Squared
- Resource Insights
Finance & Economics Blogs
- Calculated Risk
- Ecological Economics
- Econbrowser
- Environmental Economics
- Infectious Greed
- The Mess That Greenspan Made
- Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis
Organizations
“Most people spend more time and energy going around problems than in trying to solve them.”
—Henry Ford
User login
Contact
- Content: editors at theoildrum dot com
- Tech support: support at theoildrum dot com
Personnel
- Editors: Prof. Goose, Heading Out, Stuart Staniford, Nate Hagens
- DrumBeat Editor: Leanan
- Contributors: ace, Engineer-Poet, Gail the Actuary, jeffvail, JoulesBurn, Khebab, Robert Rapier
- TOD:Local: Glenn
- TOD:Europe: Chris Vernon, Euan Mearns, Francois Cellier, Jerome a Paris, Luís de Sousa, Rembrandt, Rune Likvern, Ugo Bardi
- TOD:Canada: benk, Libelle
- TOD:ANZ: Big Gav, Phil Hart, aeldric
- Technician: Super G
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
GAIA Host Collective
Oh please. From the way you act, you have already given up, and without even trying. What if someone had a design for some magical fusion device on paper. Would you still dismiss it outright? For reference, we do have a source of power 'on paper' that can satisfy all our energy needs: they're sometimes called 'wind', 'solar', 'hydro', 'geothermal', 'nuclear', 'electrification', 'biofuels', 'conservation'.
But clearly, they are so complex and have such high limitations that we shouldn't even try! Better go get in that drivers seat of your SUV!
I hear its about to take a trip to the nearest mall...
Hothgar, you ask if I would dismiss a "magical fusion device on paper" ?? It depends - How much energy do you get from this magical device while it is still "on paper" ? When would you get it off paper and into REALITY and at what cost and using what resources and would it be available for service before declining oil production begins killing the world economy???
You can imagine or project whatever you want but then you have to deal with reality of actually producing and deploying the system. As long as you stay "on paper" virtually anything might seem possible - "infinite possibilities" without considering probabilities or limitations posed by reality. We need realistic solutions now, not imaginary solutions on paper to hope for someday, and to waste time and energy on in futile pursuit in the present.
As for the simplistic view on wind, solar, hydro (and what energy source is 'electrifiction" ??) etc, - as I said above, you ignore the limitations of each and the complexity of the system you are trying to service (world energy needs). Each will contribute and play a role to some extent but they will not run this civilization as it's structured now.
And playing with imaginary hype with imaginary numbers "on paper" is not "trying." It's intellectual masterbation to relieve your anxiety over reality.