Jones Beene wrote: > > It gives us that window of opportunity, one or two years, to provide > the technical “miracle” breakthrough in alternative energy which is > what we really need to maintain the way of life we treasure so much, > and which has been threatened by this stupid dependence on foreign oil. > Well, the "way of life you treasure so much" is actually part of the problem, not of the solution. Your way of life has been "threatened" because it is unsustainable, and not only at the energy level, but also at the ecological, and social, level. Your way of life is/was possible only because a) there were "new territory" (resources) to conquer. That is now practically finished. b) there is a vast and growing number of people living in almost complete poverty.
Now, in front of the crisis, and instead of acknowledge this, you pretend to find some miracle energy source to merely postpone the day of reckoning. That's not a very wise course of action in the medium/long term. Your way of life is also undesirable at the aesthetic and ethical levels. I for one don't want to live my life as a self-indulgent gluttonous person, ignorant and disengaged of the misery of my (closer and closer) surroundings.