Forum OpenACS Q&A: rant: ON
My ideal energy system would be fusion reactors performing electrolosis on their wastewater to generate hydrogen fuel, which is shipped out along the liquid/gas transport economy existing today (with minor modifications), to be used in fuel cells with 85% - 90% efficiency conversion back into electricity. It would be nice.... the near infinite energy supply of nuclear, no waste, a fuel transfer system we are already acquainted with, vehicles with greater range than ones with internal combustion engines, and no propping up third-world dictators for easy access to vital energy sources. The tech for everything but the fusion is already there, and the system can work with fission with the addition of higher security needs and long-term waste disposal. Only industrial inertia holds it back.
And that's some serious inertia... 683 billion USD of inertia per year, just from the top 5 oil & car companies in the US alone (bring in the non-US companies to knock it into the $1.2T range. Source: Fortune500). With that much at stake, do you think it's possible that these very powerful companies, and their well-connected friends in government, might seek to warp the debate? Just maybe?
Let's ignore global warming for now. What about the more directly observable outcomes? Air pollution doesn't just make pretty sunsets, it also kills people. Rather a lot of people, 3 million per year globally according to WHO, more than 3 times the number of people killed in auto accidents. (Within the US, the two numbers are roughly equivalent, 50k - 60k. Same as the total US casualties in Vietnam.) Let's assume you don't die from the air pollution, and neither do your children or your elderly relatives. Do you jog? Bike? Notice the difference in air quality on an ozone alert day? Feel your lungs burning? Notice how you can only run twice as far? Here in Texas, the official state response is "you don't need to be outside". When did we trade away our enjoyment of the outdoors? What did we get for it?
I liked this one:
Orange County could save $349 million a year in health care costs if stricter standards for airborne particulate matter were imposed. Source: The American Lung Association (Los Angeles Times November 20, 1997)
That in one county. Turns out, last week Alcoa lost in court and will spend $330 mil to fit their largest plant with scrubbers. It's the largest pollution source in Texas and affects 3 major cities. $330 mil in capital expenses, amortized out over a decade, and affecting dozens of counties, sounds like a hell of a good deal.
I would add something about political stability for access to oil, but it seems you can buy access for $200BN, albeit for a few years...
Why do you feel the need to vigorously defend the current system? When you say "Spending $billions on the Kyoto protocols rather than pumping that money into research to actually figure out what we should do is insane.", do you even know what you're talking about? Those billions give incentives to restructure operations to reduce pollution - aka less waste - aka higher efficiency! There is a long-term savings, by all players, by making something currently free, pollution, have value -- it financially motivates everyone to get creative. Do you watch the pollution trading markets? Have you seen how the integration of free-market capitalism and government pollution controls have halved the world sulfer dioxide emissions in just 10 years? The Kyoto protocol is not hemp designs and tofu recipes -- it is a hardcore capitalist document for sponsoring innovation.
We are shifting to a new energy economy. Step back 300 years and look at the pattern: from wood to coal in the 18th century, from coal to oil at the beginning of the 20th. Each time, the dependence on the old fuel had created an economic disaster: Europe was decades away from total deforestation in the former, in the latter coal had made cities hostile to human life. (The London fog would trap the soot & sulfer and kill hundreds in a night.) On each shift, the pollution-per-person plummeted, available energy soared, health improved, and whole new industries were developed.
In the long run, environmentalism is a net win for everyone.
