Russell's Blog

The term "alternative energy" annoys me. It is a sloppy bit of wordsmithing. Do we really have an alternative to this?

No, actually. We don't. It's obvious, by simple inspection, that the scene above cannot continue. Even if we wanted to continue making electricity this way, it is impossible. Any activity this intensive and inefficient will run its course very quickly. It could happen in several ways, but the simplest and surest way it will stop is that they will simply run out of coal.

On one hand, we have a few reasonably non-destructive means of generating energy, like wind and solar. On the other hand, we have idiocy and crime. How is it alternative energy when there is essentially no choice?

As I've pointed out, coal is responsible for most of our carbon emissions, but provides less than a third of our generating capaicty. That is stupid. I suggest we dump the terms "green energy" and "alternative energy," and simply call those things energy, and use the term "dumb energy" to refer to coal.