http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/solar/concentrating-solar/ninth-circuit-lets-ivanpah-solar-work-continue.html
Cover the deserts in solar energy plants and use electric trains for our transportation infrastructure; the best future I can imagine. A favorite Einstein quote is “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Perhaps the number we are counting that counts is the amount of energy it would require for a future population of 10 billion people to live like we do in the west.
I was surprised to find a statement to the effect that only one method of generating this energy is practical; solar energy beamed to Earth from the Moon; from wiki–
“In short, Criswell believes that lunar-solar energy is the only viable option for generating the massive amounts of electrical power that would be needed to raise the standard of living in third-world nations to that of first-world nations.
He once said, from the University of Houston, that “We are already well beyond what the biosphere can provide. We have to go outside to get something else.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Criswell
If that is the only way then that is the only way. We had better start asking ourselves what the cost of denial is going to be.
http://www.shimz.co.jp/english/theme/dream/lunaring.html
That comment from Criswell sounds like… lunacy (pardon the pun).
I would agree that a large scale conversion of Earth’s deserts into solar energy plants could solve a lot of energy problems, though shifting sand dunes would be problematic, limiting the type of deserts applicable.
“That comment from Criswell sounds like… lunacy”
David R. Criswell, Ph.D is currently the Director of the Institute for Space Systems Operations at the University of Houston.
I would say you are the loon. Better stick to arguing with Mad Otto over conspiracy theories; I will delete any more of your comments to my posts.