Reply #74: Not that we need anything except fire, water, food and a nice cave.

[Uncle Joe]

Things are always changing.

"They also give a good way to burn fossil fuels."

That's another reason as to why we need to convert everything we can to clean renewable energy sources.

Airplanes and rockets have also contributed to our ability for space travel with the potential to eventually expand off this one little island in the universe, and the ability to gather resources from off planet, insuring the survival of the species for at least a little longer.

"Well, every human institution we have today exists because of the foundation of a growing population. More tax payers. More consumers. Spreading the risk as thin as possible. If we level the population off, or begin an actual decline, then something will have to change in those institutions."

Two points on that.

1. As populations stabilize and decrease, costs to society will reduce as well.

2. I suspect humanity for a time will rely increasingly on automation, it seems to me Japan is leading the way in that regard.

"We haven't had the chance to try those energies on a global platform before. We do still live in physical reality. There is always a cost."

And should those green, sustainable energy sources prove to harmful to the environment, that will need to be addressed up front or corrected, but until that is proven, we have to go with the best course of action as we know it and we already know the present course of relying on fossil fuels is certainly not it.

"That is the exact way we got to where we are as of July 29th, 2010. Maybe it'll be different this time. Hopefully not just because of the definition we give to the term green, or renewable, or clean, or whatever. We are going to find out though, one way or another. It certainly won't be a boring century."

Not quite although I agree with you about the not boring part. We first saw this imminent danger fork back when Jimmy Carter had solar panels on the White House, but when Reagen came to power he disregarded the obvious implications, reversed course and took our nation down the wrong path, that's how we got to July 29th 2010 as we know it.