Unlimited clean energy in 20 years?

[ZXDunny]

Unlimited energy means unlimited weapons. I'm not sure any government is about to give that.

Wtf are you talking about. We already have enough nuclear warheads to blow up the planet ten times.

It would appear that's not the case. Not even one time.

D.

 

[Binky]

The thing that always bothers me is that people complain about wind turbines more than conventional power stations. To my mind, wind turbines are graceful and unobtrusive, when compared to enormous concrete complexes with cooling towers.

Also, cooling towers release steam and and water into the air. Literally clouds. Not smoke. Why do journalists insist on using the large ones as an illustration for air pollution? Any harm they cause is either aesthetic or thermal, rather than chemical.

 

[Granitehead]

Unlimited energy means unlimited weapons. I'm not sure any government is about to give that.

Wtf are you talking about. We already have enough nuclear warheads to blow up the planet ten times.

It would appear that's not the case. Not even one time.

D.

Probably depends a lot on what you call "blowing up the planet". I assume we really can't blow up the planet literally. But we can make it a place where it's impossible to live anymore.
Of course some people will deny that. And it's impossible to proof either statement. Because institutions which have nuclear weapons generally don't give out detailed information about their number and size.

Here are some estimations: http://fas.org/issues/nuclear-weapons/status-world-nuclear-forces/

So about 2000 nuclear warheads are ready for launch within a couple of minutes. I think we can safely assume one of them is on average able to level a very large city and produce a huge fallout rendering the surrounding inhabitable for a long time.

This is sure as hell enough to initiate an apocalyptic scenario in five minutes.

And about 8 times that scenario given some days or weeks to prepare.

I can't say whether this is enough to definitely kill humanity. But it /would/ be enough to kill society.

 

[Null]

To my mind, wind turbines are graceful and unobtrusive, when compared to enormous concrete complexes with cooling towers.

I prefer the look of power stations myself.

 

[Granitehead]

To my mind, wind turbines are graceful and unobtrusive, when compared to enormous concrete complexes with cooling towers.

I prefer the look of power stations myself.

No matter what you prefer aesthetically, in my opinion it is completely irrelevant compared to the other up and downsides of the different energy sources.

 

[Null]