Nuclear power production has been off the table for the last two or three decades. Given our energy shortages, we need greater use of fissionable materials to help fill the pipeline. Other than NIMBY, what are the objections to getting back into nuclear power production?
What would be reasonable environmental safeguards?
Maybe we could buy enriched uranium from Iran? 
How about buying huge tracts of Africa cheap and paving them over with photo-electric cells and windmillsā¦?
Tab,
How do you plan on keeping the wildebeest migrations intact? What about elephants tearing the hell out of things? I donāt even want to think about the problems with monkeys taking up residenceā¦
Natural selection - just kill them.
Or build Yuriās Revenge style mind control devices, and set the elephants and monkeys to work.
Well, I was thinking the desert belt, but in extremity - sample the animals, bank 'em and clone them back later. Save Noah first, then heāll take care of the ark.
Iām sure that before weāre done, there will be more wind and solar power every place it is possible to site such energy sources. But I have to ask, who in Africa is going to pay the billions of dollars to install this infrastructure? Can the material neccessary to build all of this be found in Africa? Because if it canāt, the cost doubles if not triples just in transportation costs. If Africans canāt come up with the necessary finances to do all of this and other countries make the investment, who owns the power generated? The Africans or the investors? Do Turkish investors own the power generated in South Africa? How does this work?
Weeāll, when I said ābuyā I was thinking more of a hostile-take-over.
Look, sorry, I know Iām having problems doing all this on a āpractical within the sphere of existing geo-political architectureā level, but to be quite honest, I think the problem has already gone beyond that kind of solution.
If this were a life-boat situation, weād already be drawing lots to see who was the next to get eaten.
The longer we wait, the less politically palatable the answers will become.
The original solar panel and cell is becoming obsolete. They have new ways to harvest solar power with greater efficency and use less material. Windmills can now generate household electricity from 5 mph wind. And guess what? Its not as expensive as many think. For about 5000 we can convert a home to wind and solar power. The conversion will pay for itself in about 2 years.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_36/b3898119_mz018.htm
http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/nsolcel.htm
Kris,
Thanks for the links. One can only hope that the technological advances will keep up with need. Perhaps they will, but Iāve read hundreds of articles where a lab experiment works and commercialization is ājust around the cornerā. Something seems to keep these miracles from coming to fruition.
But the demand is there. It is no longer just bitching about slightly higher energy costs, it is about the cost changing life styles in dramatic ways. That could be a good thing, but right now most folks aināt exactly happy and feeling comfortable.
Actually all that would be needed is advertisement. So far the producers of alternative energy sources are not advertising their products except in a limited way. They do not get the federal funding that main producers get. Grants and loans have not been forthcoming with these alternative producers. Word of mouth right now is about the only way they can get their products known.
Research is always ongoing with anything except with the industrial energy giants. Existing products are well worth buying now. Replacements of them for better models will not be expensive either. Here is another little boost for alternative energy on your home. It increases the value of the property more than what you paid to get it installed.