In my view, the moral sentiment in the top comment on the previous discussion (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40414932) represents why progress on global warming is slow.
It’s not realistic for humans to use less energy. It’s especially not realistic given that a huge fraction of the world’s population still lives in the developing world and lacks basics like modern hospitals, schools, a reliable electric grid, i.e. things we taken for granted in the West. I don’t think, say, Indians are bad people for wanting air conditioning.
Instead of counterproductive moralizing, the focus has to be on how to grow energy production while decoupling this growth with CO2 emissions. We are making progress with renewables but more is required. We cannot, as some claim, bury our heads and hope solar will save the day. Specifically, heavy investments in nuclear are needed. Nuclear energy, unfortunately, is an area that has encountered moralizing, quasi-religious opposition from too many environmental groups. What is needed is a rational discussion that acknowledges today’s nuclear plant designs are better, and if built at scale, cheaper than in the past
We have the technology to solve the problem. We just need the political will to acknowledge the reality that energy use needs to grow and how best do we manage this growth.
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[ 2.1 ms ] story [ 21.3 ms ] threadIt’s not realistic for humans to use less energy. It’s especially not realistic given that a huge fraction of the world’s population still lives in the developing world and lacks basics like modern hospitals, schools, a reliable electric grid, i.e. things we taken for granted in the West. I don’t think, say, Indians are bad people for wanting air conditioning.
Instead of counterproductive moralizing, the focus has to be on how to grow energy production while decoupling this growth with CO2 emissions. We are making progress with renewables but more is required. We cannot, as some claim, bury our heads and hope solar will save the day. Specifically, heavy investments in nuclear are needed. Nuclear energy, unfortunately, is an area that has encountered moralizing, quasi-religious opposition from too many environmental groups. What is needed is a rational discussion that acknowledges today’s nuclear plant designs are better, and if built at scale, cheaper than in the past
We have the technology to solve the problem. We just need the political will to acknowledge the reality that energy use needs to grow and how best do we manage this growth.