I consider energy issues to be awfully important, so here are some links that you can all read and then you can share with the rest of us your interesting thoughts on this global-emergency-level problem.
Firstly: this blog comment: ten reasons why nuclear power is a bad idea. Meltdowns and waste removal are barely even addressed, so you know it’s a good post when it doesn’t have to bother with the boogeyman reasons to avoid nuclear power and instead goes into the harder economics.
Secondly, Scientific American’s “solar grand plan” to make America completely solar-powered by 2050. The article makes extremely conservative assumptions about the progression of solar power (as in “it won’t get any more efficient” – they even ignore the new advances in the past two years which have made it more efficient, that’s how conservative their assumptions are) and ignore the potential upsides of individual home generation (IE, having photovoltaic cells on your roof). That last element is important, because decentralization of power makes it both more efficient and more secure. (I’m not particularly worried about a terrorist attack in Canada, but if I were, them taking out two or three generation plants in mid-January would probably be the nightmare scenario.)
Thirdly, if those arguing that it’s too late to stop global warming through carbon emission reduction because of the likewise reduction of global dimming are correct (and they probably are), how do we combat that? Realclimate discusses some of the options (lousy as they might be) here; to my mind they’re probably a little more down on the “smokestack plan” (which involves basically putting giant hoses on smokestacks, floating them up with weather balloons, and releasing sulphates into the upper atmosphere to simulate the cooling effect of a volcanic eruption) – not to say that the plan isn’t problematic, what with the threat of acid rain at the very least, but desperate times and desperate measures, etc.
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I was impressed with the solar energy plan. Too bad the politicians don’t care about it.
I’ve been touting the European equivalent of the Solar plan (ie, leasing thousands of square miles of Morocco or Libya and covering it with Solar Panels) to anyone who’l listen to me in the pub.
What we need is a politician with vision and influence who fancies getting their name on something that will last – whether it’s a US President or a major European politican once someone commits to the idea the floodgates will open and the whole world will be at it.
Gotta say, it was neat to see the nuclear energy comment posted somewhere independently, let alone on a blog I read pretty frequently. (I actually saw the post when it was at the top of the page, but didn’t want to chime in for fear of looking like a narcissist.) Thanks. 🙂