Robin van Spaandonk wrote:
>Had AE research started twenty years ago
>and continued unabated we probably wouldn't be having this insane
>conversation now.
[snip]
I can't think of any time in the last 40 years that this sort of
research hasn't
been ongoing. It has just taken a long time to get to the point it is now at.
Gradual progress.
I assume AE stands for conventional alternative energy, not stuff
like cold fusion. Cold fusion is a whole different story, as everyone
here knows.
I think alternative energy and conservation research has been
desultory (disconnected, haphazard, jumping from one thing to
another). Especially in the U.S. we have not taken it seriously
enough, or invested enough. That's why our economic rivals such as
Italy and Japan are more energy efficient and they get far more GNP
per dollar of expenses. Both industry and government have failed. The
most glaring example is the Toyota Prius versus the GM line of gas
guzzling SUVs and other 30-year-old, unsafe, obsolete, garbage
technology! It is no wonder Toyota is the biggest carmaker, and GM
stock is worth nothing. The company doesn't deserve to survive.
While there has been progress in some forms of alternative energy,
such as wind turbines, there has been practically no progress in
equally promising things such as solar thermal, or pure electric
cars. This is deliberate. Vested interests drove Luz out of business
and crushed the GM electric cars. It has been the policy of large
corporations and the U.S. government to prevent progress in these
technologies. I don't believe in conspiracy theories, but I recognize
crooked businessmen and anti-trust violations when I see them.
Business strive to prevent progress, stifle competition, and rook
their customers all the time, in every country.
Read the business section any newspaper, any day of the week, and you
will see a parade of scoundrels who cause trouble and prevent
progress for a living. A good living! See the movie about Enron, "The
Smartest Guys in the Room." I would never say that all businessmen
are corrupt, but plenty of them are, plus there are hoards of fools
who are even more destructive. Unfortunately, our energy policy has
been in the hands of scoundrels and fools for a generation. We might
have converted the whole of Nevada and Southern California to solar
thermal electricity by now. We might have built 50 GW of wind power,
plus 200 new generation uranium fission reactors to replace coal.
Instead we got Enron and ethanol.
Needless to say, with cold fusion, business, government, academia and
the media all failed spectacularly. Every institution in society that
is supposed to promote progress is at fault. It is an unprecedented
fiasco. I think it is the worst in modern history.
- Jed
