[extropy-chat] POLITICS: oil and strategies

[Spike]

> At 05:42 PM 6/25/2004 -0700, The Avantguardian wrote:
> 
> 
> >Take the top scientists from our universities,
> >put them on a military base in some desert, and give
> >them one year to come up with one or more alternative
> >energy sources to oil...
> 
> Fuel is not all that oil is used for.
> 
> Plus: There's a lot of money and political clout in the existing oil 
> industry. Some argue that cheap access to reliable supply is 
> exactly what motivated the Iraq wars to begin with...
> 
> Damien Broderick

Yes to all this, and besides, we need no professors.  The
science is already in place, has been for a long time.  We
know what needs to be done.  To get to energy independence
we just need to build the windmills, the PV farms, grow the
corn.  Right now oil is so cheap and the infrastructure is 
so well developed, the other stuff cannot compete.  

Look a few years into the future of energy technology.  China
is coming up, as is India.  Those nations have over a billion
people each, and they are eager to industrialize to western
standards.  Oil can only get more expensive, which will give
alternate sources a chance.  Truly, we are on the eve of 
construction.

spike