a couple of blogs I like

From north of the border, Steve Aplin is contributing fruitfully to the discussion of how to generate sufficient energy for a modern economy while meeting Kyoto goals. Thanks to Randall Leavitt for the heads-up!

In turn, Leavitt has made a useful post on his blog that cites the need to frame the current energy debate using concepts that include safety culture and expertise, as well as the ongoing need to reduce fossil fuel emissions of both pollutants and greenhouse gases. He even cited the poor ethics of running society with a shortage of energy because shortages of energy create conflicts that would not occur if there were sufficient energy to go around. He believes that the ethical and moral choice is to ensure that society has enough energy to power its activities including energy-intensive things like manufacturing, but he believes that we can achieve this goal while at the same time reducing dependence on fossil fuels...if people who are knowledgeable in science and in accurate risk assessment have the assertiveness to educate and lobby in favor of the non-fossil fuel resource that has the capability to generate enough energy to avoid shortages. Rod Adams recently wrote a post that compared the amount that can be generated using available nuclear fission technology (much greater) compared with the amount that can be generated using the available wind, geothermal, and solar technology (a smaller aggregate amound, although wind is growing).