Originally Posted by bhutocracy

I think you are fundamentally misunderstanding the situation. Your sentiments don't really acknowledge that the status quo will not last and that you don't really look for answers or solutions to the problems you think of.

So what if most electricity right now is generated from coal? At some point in the future we won't be generating electricity from coal because at the very least, ignoring all other factors, there simply will be no coal left. All light used to be generated by whale oil. All energy used to be generated by burning trees. To me, when people say this all I really hear is "Look killing whales sucks, but ALL light is produced from whales, you think we're going to build dangerous ugly powerlines all over our beautiful streets that KILL people when they touch them??? You're crazy - who'd want to live in a permanent death trap???"

Nanosolar technology is currently being used to coat normal building materials such as steel roof sheeting and windows with solar generating technology so there isn't as great a need for power plants.. Each new home will be a power plant just by building with better materials that are cheaper to make than older solar panel technology. Current wave technology that is completely hidden under the surface of the water can completely power whole continents with near baseload power.

Complaining about green technology becoming obsolete is also very strange. I'd like to know how you're posting on this forum.. I mean your computer is going to be obsolete a hell of a lot quicker than any green tech, you didn't wait for the very last computer to be built before you bought your first one - you acknowledged there was a utility to it, the benefits of which outweighed any negatives. And that's just the cheap shot, you're basically saying, why make money now when I can hold off and start making more money in ten years? After a positive EROEI/acceptable investment payback period has been devised (hint we already do this with current tech) there isn't some magical point where it becomes "worth doing".. it's just a constant state of being "even more worth doing".. It's like saying "why buy this profitable business, in ten years i'll just buy a more profitable one".. why not use the profits from the ten years of the first business to buy the even more profitable one "free carried"? Or have both running and making a bigger profit than either individually? It's just a fundamentally flawed argument.

The other argument about solar cells requiring energy and oil to create is specious for similar reasons. Everything requires energy.. oil requires oil to find and produce. Given that EVERYTHING requires it, you can't use it as a negative as it's moot, all you can do is turn it into a variable about how efficient it's use is. This is how silly complaining about green tech using oil to be made is.. Oil can only be used once.. you can either burn the barrel of oil on motoring a car around and lose it forever, or you can turn that barrel into a solar panel and use it for 30 years to generate the equivalent energy of many many barrels of oil.. which means using solar panels to create more solar panels. It's like complaining about investing requiring money. "Why would I take my $10,000 and turn it into 1,000,000 over 30 years? Don't you know that I could spend that $10,000 on a BJ and half a pound of coke?"
You're talking "I wish for a million wishes" here... when you invest energy into something that generates more energy than you put into it you're making the best use of that energy.. You can't complain about oil and energy going into solar panels.. you can only complain about doing anything BUT putting oil and energy into renewable resources: "why are we spending all our energy on coke and hookers - why aren't we investing any of it".

It's a problem that will take at least two decades to fix which is why it's such a murderous cunt hole we're not investing more now to speed things along... We've only got about half our oil left and we should be investing it. But it's like cancer, the fact it will be a long battle isn't any reason not to start treatment. "Boo hoo there is no overnight cure, no pill i can take to be at work cancer free tomorrow so I won't get surgery and have chemo, i'll just keep complaining and hope they invent an overnight cure before it's too late and I die waiting for something better".

Very, very curious.