> ... if peak oil is true, Dons Kevlar vest, nomex overalls, anti-libertarian radiation shields, anti-socialist ... 1. It's not. (Ducks). Read ?1970s? 'Club of Rome' stuff for possible clues as to why. 2. Even if it is, and it's not (see 1.), then we have enough time (tm) to get the He3 fusion reactors going and the "few" Shuttle loads a year coming back from the Lunar strip mining operations in order to supply all the world's needs. The beanstick elevators will help, but He3 is so overpoweringly overowering that good old chemical rockets work just fine to get what Lunar He3 we need. 3. And then we are OK until we can get the He3 'deep dip' mining and return going. 4. And then we are OK for longer than is sane. While there are very dirty versions of fusion available, and the easier (not easy) ones are the dirty ones, the holy grail of He3 fusion is a waste free energy source. Even if Peak Oil be true (see 1.) it has NOT included nuclear fusion in its gambit and so it's irrelevant, as long as we work together to get the decent version of fusion going as soon as reasonably possible. And there's the rub. > Nuclear seems to be the only thing capable of filling the gap in > the shortest time. Maybe, but - Shortest time not needed (see above) Not needed anyway (See above). > It may take 50-100 years to put an alternate in place, especially > since > there's no 'front runner' in any of the proposed replacements. 50 years is fine. We can progress through the Shale Oil, continental shelf Methane, deep trench MEthane, Southern Ocean "you've got to be brave for that one" Oil. And, if we were really serious, Robert Stirling would save us :-). > This means nuclear should be be a temporary measure, This means nuclear is not needed as a temporary solution, which is just as well, as we all know how disastrous fixes that are meant to be temporary solutions all too often turn out to be :-). Russell -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist