I was watching the Glenn Beck show last night.(I am not a toilet, dont feed me no crap for that) but while I was watching him he had a guest speaker on that says that the earths energy problems will be eliminated totally within 20 years. I decided to look more into this engineer and futurist and this is what I found. First being a futurist he sucessfully predicted the fall of the Soviet Union and the rapid spread of the Internet. As an engineer Ray Kurzweil is part of a panel of engineers that say solar power will produce all the energy needs for the plantet in 20 years.
There is 10,000 more times sunlight than we need and in accordance to Kurzweils law of accelerating returns, a doubling of price performance is happening every year. He also states that solar power will compete with other forms of energy in five years with the introduction of nano engineered materials for solar panels making them lighter and easier to install. I really hope so ....

Find this article at www.livescience.com/enviroment/080219-Kurzweil-solar.html

I wouldn't discount humankind's ability to actually create a technology - that is, if the corporate structures don't block it with politics. If Mobil, BP, and Shell had put their cash and engineering resources into renewable energy, we'd have been there twenty years ago or earlier. But the petroleum corporations can't generate revenue on renewable energy. They (petroleum energy companies) have been pressuring governments to maintain the status quo. That's no paranoid delusion, it's obvious. Ray Kurzweil may well be correct regarding the time horizon to develop the intellectual engineering capacity and "know-how." But again, the question is whether the petroleum corporations will allow this technology into common usage. Chances are that the petroleum corporations will buy or otherwise control the technology - at least the really big stuff that is engineered to power the grid. But what would stop any homeowner from buying their own hyper-energy converting solar panels and going off the grid? It is this scenario that instills fear into the petroleum corporations.

1st Edit: When I say petroleum corporations, by implication I include coal mines and the current electric utility generating process, in general.

Last night Kurzwiel noted that corporate sponsorers have donated "billions" of dollars into this research. Petroleum and other energy kings are smart. They will always be there to get their cookies.

What will the call the new energy mega-corps. Sun Companies? Solar Barons?

Right now we call them the "Oil Companys. Maybe, eventually, we'll all be fighting over open flat land instead of oil fields.

If we do not have to worry about energy anymore, I guarantee that we will find something to overconsume and cause a unwarranted spike in the prices. Solar Barons ... I love it.

I hope they do not take off with a fad idea like bio-fuel and take us all out without listening to reason because it sounds like the politically popular things to do.

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April 25, 2008 7:32 AM PDT
Geoengineered cooling of planet would have 'perilous effects'


Proposals to cool Earth by injecting the atmosphere with sulfate particles would deplete the ozone layer and have "perilous effects" on the planet, according to a paper to be published Friday.

As concerns grow over climate change and global warming, large-scale efforts to alter the planet's climate through geoengineering are being taken seriously by academics.

A proposal to cool the climate with sulfate particles in the atmosphere would further damage the ozone layer, a study concludes.
(Credit: NASA)

But a study performed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) cautioned that more research is needed before so-called geoengineering efforts are pursued.
source

Thanks ... something else to look into ... Did you see the report today from www.sciencedaily.com that states that the ozone healing itself over the antartic is going to cause the ice to melt faster? When is this all going to come to an end?