What's the root of "the peak" -- economics or geop

[RGR]

[quote="Aurora"]

[Keepz]

Says who? There are loads of technologies under development, some of them very well advanced, which will enable us to move away from fossil fuel use as and when we have to.
So solar, wind, nuclear fission, hydro, biofuels, tidal, geothermal, hydrogen, demand management and energy efficiency are all useless no-hopers?

That's cheating, including established technologies.

I din't think so. The proposition was that it is foolish to assume that our descendants will work out a way of managing without oil. Obviously I can't prove that something will happen in future. Equally you can't prove that it won't. But I think it's perfectly legitimate to look at what has already happened and what is already happening as an indicator.

In any case, I wouldn't myself say that wind and solar are yet working as well as they possibly can, so calling them "established" is debatable.

Yes, some of the ideas under development are going to prove to be dead ends for mass production - personally I think wave power is unlikely as a runner - but so what? When has it ever been the case that every idea works out as intended?

Oh, you missed out 'being happy with less.' That's the only one that really works full time.

Well, I did include demand management and energy efficiency and I agree that there is huge scope for both of those. I've been very disappointed by the hostile and cynical response by some on this forum to the deployment of smart electricity metering, for that's actually something with huge potential.

But "being happy with less" is not something that can be organised through any kind of Government policy. In regimes where people have been told how much of anything they are allowed and on what basis to be happy, the result has invariably been quite disastrous. People do and will adjust their spending and consumption priorities over time and in their own way in response to shifts in affordability, depending on their own priorities, better than anybody else can do it on their behalf.

[RenewableCandy]

Yer not wrong: the government can't tell even the most public-spirited of people to be happy with less. Not any more, anyway.