Reply #18: In principle I agree with you

[GliderGuider]

Using more energy isn't the solution to a set of problems that were created by using energy in the first place.

That said, wind and solar aren't going to ramp up fast enough to replace the energy we'll lose from oil and gas, so overall our energy use will decline with time. I look on wind and solar as "soft landing" technologies. Their value will be in easing us down out of our current high energy civilization and back into closer balance with the unimpeded energy flows of the planet. I can't imagine an industrial civilization consisting of multiple billions of people running on wind and solar, I'm afraid. I can imagine it running on coal for a while, I'm afraid. I'm very afraid of that.

The thing that really gives me cold shivers is the thought that we might develop cheap, practical nuclear fusion in the near future. That would probably spell the end of the biosphere.