Joined: Aug 03, 2007 Posts: 3627 Location: Boston Suburbs
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:01 pm Post subject: Re: Solar Power to Rule in 20 Years, Futurists Say
What2DO wrote:
Yes all those old people have nothing to live for anymore
The old people already lived their life. Now suddenly people are going to tell them to watch out for their carbon footprint? They want to take their fricken trips to the Bahamas!! Why should they worry about TSHTF? They've built a database of life experience that tells them that the status quo WORKS. Why should they believe otherwise??
What2DO wrote:
and don't care what happens to their children or grandchildren or
They might care in a wishy washy "donate to greenpeace" sense, but not enough to alter their lifestyle in the interest of marginal improvements in the planet they won't live to see.
What2DO wrote:
I take it you have no children and if you do I feel sorry for them.
It's because I do have a child that I give a damn. If people were as concerned as you say, we wouldn't be in this mess.
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:45 pm Post subject: Re: Solar Power to Rule in 20 Years, Futurists Say
Quote:
it's because I do have a child that I give a damn. If people were as concerned as you say, we wouldn't be in this mess.
What just because all the people don't change all at once things are'nt changing ?
Also people are concerned about their love ones, I just think they were'nt aware of the problems they were making at the time, but I think they are now realizing what has been done and change is coming perhaps slowly. but it is coming.
If you are told something long enough over time that is what you believe and when you find out that that something you were told is wrong its hard at first to accept it and change.
Joined: Aug 03, 2007 Posts: 3627 Location: Boston Suburbs
Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008 3:00 am Post subject: Re: Solar Power to Rule in 20 Years, Futurists Say
What2DO wrote:
What just because all the people don't change all at once things are'nt changing ?
Also people are concerned about their love ones, I just think they were'nt aware of the problems they were making at the time, but I think they are now realizing what has been done and change is coming perhaps slowly. but it is coming.
If you are told something long enough over time that is what you believe and when you find out that that something you were told is wrong its hard at first to accept it and change.
I guess this cuts too close to home for me in my battles with my own parents on this issue. I haven't been able to get their attention enough to give them the full lecture and I can tell they don't want to hear it. My dad sells cars for a living. That should tell you something about his biases. They are avid Wal Mart and CostCo shoppers. They have a house in Florida with a busted seawall which will probably be knee deep underwater in my lifetime if it doesn't get swept away in a hurricane first. And yet my family has always professed to be liberal minded and concerned about the environment. But the cognitive dissonance runs deep.
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:57 pm Post subject: Re: Solar Power to Rule in 20 Years, Futurists Say
mos6507 wrote:
Schadenfreude wrote:
I would bet that most of the people who DO subscribe to the end of civilization idea are quite young while most of the people who think that the end of the oil age will be somewhat wrenching but manageable (like Matt Simmons) are older.
I think the older generation tend to be the type NOT to believe in peak oil or are reluctant to consider societal collapse because they have already lived their entire lives with an abundance of cheap energy. That's all they've ever known and they have absolutely nothing to gain in reshaping their model of the world in their twilight years. They've already built their nest egg brick by brick and by gosh they are gonna ride out into the sunset happily and quietly even if they have to actively insulate themselves from the world collapsing outside their gated retirement communities.
It's the younger generation who has to look a little farther in the crystal ball to see whether their future aspirations have a greater or lesser chance of coming to pass.
What, the oil shocks of 1973 and 1979-80 were nothing???
Some may be skeptical BECAUSE they experienced some decline in production. Now in their day it was politically motivated vs. today's
Supply side issues.
And the supply side issues are PARTIALLY in response to speculation, lack of refining capacity for lower grades, less refineries for ALL grades, WAR (Iraq !!!), and a Sinking Dollar.
The other part is indeed we are running low on Light Sweet Crude... _________________ With Love to all, and Malice to none.
"A people is conquered not when they lose a war, but when they adopt the song and customs of the enemy"
-Chacham S
BOSTON — He predicted the fall of the Soviet Union. He predicted the explosive spread of the Internet and wireless access.
Now futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil is part of distinguished panel of engineers that says solar power will scale up to produce all the energy needs of Earth's people in 20 years.
There is 10,000 times more sunlight than we need to meet 100 percent of our energy needs, he says, and the technology needed for collecting and storing it is about to emerge as the field of solar energy is going to advance exponentially in accordance with Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns. That law yields a doubling of price performance in information technologies every year.
Kurzweil, author of "The Singularity Is Near" and "The Age of Intelligent Machines," worked on the solar energy solution with Google Co-Founder Larry Page as part of a panel of experts convened by the National Association of Engineers to address the 14 "grand challenges of the 21st century," including making solar energy more economical. The panel's findings were announced here last week at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Solar to compete in five years
Solar and wind power currently supply about 1 percent of the world's energy needs, Kurzweil said, but advances in technology are about to expand with the introduction of nano-engineered materials for solar panels, making them far more efficient, lighter and easier to install. Google has invested substantially in companies pioneering these approaches...
Let the character trashing begin!
It is plenty competitive right now if you actually consider the user cost associated with burning fossil fuels.
Anyways, I somehow get the feeling that in 20 years, unless we get a Second Coming, we are going to be seeing huge solar and wind farms protected by local militias, probably within eye shot of Thunderdome. _________________ I return to you now at the turning of the tide.
Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:22 am Post subject: Re: Solar Power to Rule in 20 Years, Futurists Say
The post on this thread that makes the most sense is the one which points out that oil has only been expensive for a few years now.
Oil has not been expensive for a long enough period yet for the cycle of acknowledge problem, work on problem, get funding, work even more on problem, maybe get more funding, work more on problem, built small test plant, to go though half a cycle.
It is just too soon to write off all of the possible ways that technology could come to the rescue. Give technology another 5 years and then revisit this topic.
Now, I know a lot of you don't think we have five years left. If you are in that category you need to start a new thread, "Kissing Our Own Asses Goodbye: The Flexible Doomers."
All times are GMT - 6 Hours Goto page Previous1, 2
Page 2 of 2
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
News
Discussions
Resources
Members
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
