SocraticGadfly: Solar power? You’d have to cover one-sixth of the whole Earth, or 59 percent of its land area, with photovoltaic solar cells to produce the ene

April 17, 2007

Solar power? You’d have to cover one-sixth of the whole Earth, or 59 percent of its land area, with photovoltaic solar cells to produce the ene

Solar power? You’d have to cover one-sixth of the whole Earth, or 59 percent of its land area, with photovoltaic solar cells to produce the energy equivalent to our oil use. (And that’s assuming the sun is shining all the time, which is of course the $64 issue with solar power.)

Biofuels? Even worse. You’d need to have 46 percent of the planet’s total area growing biofuels crop. Hope you like watching hundreds of millions of people starve. Of course, I said 46 percent of TOTAL area/ That’s more than 100 percent of its land area.

Natural gas instead of petroleum? U.S. production peaked a decade or more ago. Production for all of North America peaked in 2005. True, worldwide production is still growing, but as more people want more electricity, not all of that is coming here. AND, don’t forget that natural gas is the base stock for modern fertilizer production. To the degree you DO want to produce more biofuels, you kind of shoot yourself in the energy foot doing so.

Anyway, worldwide, Russia will peak on gas production in a decade. The world will peak probably by 2025.

The only way our energy future can avoid blowing up 20 years from now is immediate action.

Coal? Besides it’s global warming problems, coal reserves even here in the U.S. may be overstated. “Peak Coal” could hit before 2050, if not well before.

Learn more. Write Representatives and Senators and beg, plead and implore them to get serious about this.

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