There is more than ample energy coming from our Sun.Oil has just made us too lazy and we haven't put enough research into harvesting the energy from our biggest nuclear power plant called the Sun.

The doom and gloom merchants peddle their wares for short term gain,instead of looking at what can't be done,consider the possibilities of what can be done.

Enough rain falls on every house in Sydney to supply it's residents with nearly a years supply of water.Enough solar energy rains down in western NSW to support 2 billion people.What is our problem?

Our problem, Arjay, is that solar energy is dilute, and gathering enough of it and getting it to where we want to use it requires several decades worth of infrastructure spending we instead blew on F111s, freeways, and football stadiums. We *might* be able to catch enough water, if we use less, and IF we build the infrastructure, ie. get a tank for every roof. Instead of ubiquitous rainwater tanks and hundreds of solar thermal plants, we've got a few big dams and a few huge coal mines. Shame the damns are empty and coal mines are lethal, but hey its economically rational!

I'm glad you're excited about what we might be able to do one day, if we pull our finger out, i am too. Perhaps you could try explaining it to your hero in The Lodge? He's obviously pretty slow.

p.s. i'll let you go on the allegation that the author is motivated by short term gain, RightThinkers can't seem to help going some sort of smear.

That effectively sums up the situation but it doesn't necessarily mean we have to drop over the edge of a cliff. It just means that since we appear to be heading towards a situation where we let the market create the indicator (rather than governments taking massive preventative action that is hard to sell in a democracy anyway: case in point GW action) the trough of what is about to happen will be all the deeper. This will necessitate an even more desperate 'Manhattan scale' response from government but so be it.

Manhattan Scale projects are by definition less good at allocating increasingly scarce resources but IMO they will get the job done.

What 'Manhattan Scale'/renewable projects will emerge? Well, you can take your pick -probably all of them:

1. Massive role out of thin film solar (100s of TFS factories built ASAP worldwide) with 100% government grants. Installation could also be good for the economy at a time of inevitable mass employment like the Hoover dam project in the 30s.
2. Mega Desalination via OTEC + 'Free power' from the sea.
3. Growing Algea and other sea-sourced nutrients (the whole of the barrier reef is turned into one big farm...)
4. Extracting water from the air via condensation
5. Solar tower projects
6. Hybrid subsidies and tax abatements (look at what London is doing with the TPrius: saves you £2000+ per year)
7. Solar farms -vast tracts of dessert farmed for solar.
+loads more...

[The overall object will be to fill the growing 'triangular gap' between what can be produced by oil and what is required to maintain a functioning society.]

Basically, if I can think of this list and lay it down in 10minutes in a blog you can be damn sure the boffins, entreprenuers and the like are thinking ideas, business cases and real world solutions that will get us out of the mess but I am under no illusions, the longer we leave it and the closer we get to the cliff the more horrible it could get. Especially in countries that do not have the resources for Manhattan Projects which is why we will probably watch millions more Africans, Indians, you name it, die off on our HD <made in China> plasma before the rich world puts the resources in that the impending crisis deserves.

Oh, and your all going to be growing tomatoes on your patios ;o)

Nick

Hello Niko,
What is the TPrius ? What is that about ?

>6. Hybrid subsidies and tax abatements (look at what London is doing
>with the TPrius: saves you £2000+ per year)

Whenever the peak occurs, it should be treated as if it is tomorrow.
The costs will be less that way and at least the energy will be
available to develope the alternative systems.
However politicians would never get elected if they proposed such a process.

Bazz,

your right politicians wouldn't get elected if they proposed strict measures that affected todays finances adversely in response to some <perceived> future threat.

This is due to the wiring of the human brain and it's Hyperbolic Discount Function : http://www.paulchefurka.ca/Hyperbolic%20Discount%20Functions.html

Our best hope is to leverage some of the anxiety and fear that Global Warming is stirring up to prepare for energy deficiency in the coming decades. In fact I wouldn't be surprised in the least to discover that that is what some Governments have started doing in the last couple of years...

The TPrius is the Toyota Prius hybrid. TPrius drivers are exempt from the London Charging Zone payment -currently £8/day.

Manhattan Project after massive price spikes it will be -your monkey brain says so!

Nick.