Where do you think electricity comes from? Thin air? All energy generation has drawbacks and impacts. It is just a matter of how much that we collectively know of.

Solar panels enough to support a small city take up vast acres of land and are, at best, 15% efficient in converting photons into electrical power. Law of Physics. Everone is working on CIGS on glass or A silicon processes to increase efficiency. It will get better given enough time. Check out some of the solar installations in Germany, I have. Huge!

Windmills or as the environmentalists like to call them, wind generators (never mind that most are alternators)? In California, “wind generators” are shutting down because environmentalists worry birds of prey are flying into the props. They are. Many birds are being killed. Not good. Maybe it the ocean? Nobody wants to stare at them from their high end shoreline properties, not to mention the shipping hazards and impact to install and secure.

Geothermal? Works great if you happen to live in Iceland or somwhere else on top of a granitic dome or lava plume. Again, lots of real estate and nasty looking pipes and steam all over the place (global warming?). Best for heating and turbine driven generators/alternators. Not bad, but not available everywhere.

Tidal? Yea, right. No viable means to support enough generation yet. Maybe in the future but will be big. Could help with rising tides in Florence! What about the fish?

Dams? Gravity water turbine driven generators/alternators work great but impact historical river flows and fish migration. Besides environmentalists hate dams!

Nuclear? Yes, I said nuclear. Currently the best source of “clean” energy”, except……..what to do with the spent fuel rods? One could reprocess, which works, but a some point one must store the spent material. Stick it in a subduction zone!? Bury it in Nevada? Enviromentalists go ballistic at the work nuclear! Those dam French seem to have it right.

No easy answers.

Unfortunately, we have a need for electricity in this life unless you live in a cave (well maybe even then!). All forms of energy generation need to be used to gain insight and knowledge which is the least impactive overall for the amount of energy yielded. It could take decades but doing nothing is no answer.

I do agree with you that fossil fuels are not the long term answer, but then what is? The trouble I have with your line of logic is you offer no viable solutions. Instead of bitching and whinning, come up with an idea and enlighten us all. What do you think is the best method for energy generation? If we do not utilize all forms of energy production, we will never find out the best solution. Besides, once we use up all the fossil fuel we will either be in the dark freezing or come up with something better.

Enjoy your Prius if it makes you feel better but don’t forget that electricity is not “free” nor its impact to our home.

Jeff

The fundamental problem is that a price of fossil fuels does not take under consideration all the damage that it does, nor their futre potential. The reason other alternatives are relativelly expensive is because by using fossils we are stealing: we are not paying full price to harmed parties. Imagine if marine species had a voice that mattered: tanker operators would pay through the roof for their bilge emptying.