Big Think

Peter Hopkins on March 2, 2009, 10:53 PM

Peter Hopkins on March 2, 2009, 10:54 PM

Chad Welch on June 19, 2009, 9:49 PM

Soros seems to have hit upon a good idea. We are running out of oil  and we need to something about it. Who ever develops ways to solve this problem will get rich and many people will find jobs in the new companies that emerge, or the established ones that expand. Windpower, clean coal, ethanol its all out there- but what are we really doing with all of this?

I’m torn about the environmental issues. We need oil, but  I’m worried about accidents and pollution on off-shore drilling. As far as nuclear power plants are concerned, my initial  reaction is to build more- they cut costs and provide alot of cheap energy. France seems to be doing well with them. But then I think about Chernobyl and Three Mile Island and I worry. There are no easy answers on this one.

james lloyd on July 27, 2009, 12:40 AM

     there is an easy answer just not a globally accepted one…. new world order… the coalition of terran nations working as one driving force ensuring a fair, just, safe, free, and hospitable living envirnment for future generations of whatever “man” transgress’s onto through future evolution of technological advances in bio and nanotechnology, if people want to be amish let them be amish if people want to be muslim let them be muslim, if agnostic let them be agnostic ect. but if people want to be crazy, i.e fly planes into buildings full of innocent civialians, send letterbombs to random address’s, drown thier 5 small children in the bathtub in ascending order, order the deaths of 6,000,000,000 human beings by fire, gun, and gas, ect. then they cannot and will not coexist and must exist elswhere…..

    ahh just a fairytale, it would never work because humans are so instinctivley awful, ignorant, controllable, ingenious, territorial, and greedy that we will screw it up for the rest of us, and our children and our childrens children as the cycle will perpetuate until we are dealt with by a force which we cannot combat with a metaphorical “stick”. in other words f#%* your pocketbook, who cares about the economy we have some giant obstacles looming in front of us as a species. i would love nothing more than to see myself proven wrong, i sadly wait, as i listen to the masses talk…. oh and wtf about the sun? its gonna live longer than we are so why not figure out how to use it?

james lloyd on July 27, 2009, 12:41 AM

6,000,000*

Joe Dew on November 10, 2009, 7:10 PM

I agree with Soros’ general perspective but what’s currently missing is the economic incentive for this energy revolution. Fossil fuels are bad for the earth but its costs (especially coal) are still really low compared to renewable alternatives.

Until we reflect the true costs of fossil fuels in its pricing, there simply isn’t a large enough market to support this new engine of growth. Money will continue to flow to the cheapest provider, which will be fossil fuels for the foreseeable future.

faith fall on November 11, 2009, 6:55 AM

From a moderate, but a fiscally responsible one, I think everyone is missing the point. While it is absolutely important to be sustainable and to not be dependent on foreign anything, it will not be for the IMF rich. Sustainability is what the rich want US to do, not them. The new billionaire, Gore, is flying around in his jet, causing more pollution than I do in a my lifetime, and he’s buying carbon credits from his own company! Slick eh?

We must all do what we can to implement wind, solar, nuclear, and water power so we can be independent, but we must also be on the watch for leftist double speak about how they want US to be something they do not.