Quote:
Originally Posted by chezlaw
I'll take that as a poke at my clean energy point
Firtsly I'd agree we need more manhatten/etc on steroid projects than just clean energy. Your behavior points are still masks/lockdowns which are fine as far as they go but must not hide the need for the desperately needed real solutions. In all areas we need advances in science and technology. Once we have the science, it's cheap clean energy that makes implementing them possible.
I think we're coming at this from different perspectives.
We have laws which prohibit disorderly behavior. Laws against killing, stealing, etc. There is no science and technology which gets around those prohibitions. The only right answer is to not do those things.
If someone invents a crypto-currency like Bitcoin which uses 1.3 million x as much electricity as a standard debit card transaction, we don't need a solution which makes that energy clean. We need a solution that says NO, we can't do this until the clean energy alternative is available.
We are poisoning the atmosphere with carbon dioxide. 30,000 lbs per year per average US resident. Our gaseous waste dwarfs our solid waste but we ignore it because we can't see it.
There is no moral system which says it OK to destroy the future, We need a moral government which has the capability to say that some activities are prohibited. The prohibition will provide urgency to come up with solutions. In the absence of that urgency, there is no imperative to stop destroying the future.