Energy
Energy abundance is the key to the development of civilisation. To give it up is to voluntarily build recession, regression and decline.
Energy abundance is therefore non-negotiable. What is negotiable is the transition path; global warming is real and requires action. However, this action must be pragmatic, measured, and respect the values of Software Democracy.
Fossil fuels
There is no future without fossil fuels.
- They are essential to modern agriculture (massive use of gas for fertilizer production, energy for machines), which is the only way to feed humanity today. Of course, a transition must be made towards a healthier agriculture, but not by starving humanity!
- There are still billions of people to be lifted out of poverty. They will need a lot of energy. Limiting energy production is condemning these billions of people to poverty. It is a genocide.
- Fossil fuels represent 80% of the world's energy production. No other energy source can compete with its practicality (density, storage, reliability). To abandon this energy source without a reliable replacement is to accept the collapse of our civilisation.
- Energy abundance (and therefore the use of fossil fuels) will protect humanity from the effects of Global Warming, whether by adapting cultures, constructions, infrastructures...
Therefore, global warming due to the use of fossil fuels can be seen as the price to pay for emerging a rich, populous, and powerful humanity that can then evolve towards other technologies to continue its evolution. The benefits far outweigh the costs!
References
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is certainly part of the solution, but its intermittent characteristics must be taken into account in a global energy policy.
Critics of renewables see this intermittency as the main reason for their uselessness, but another point of view can be proposed. In the quest for energy abundance, overproduction is not really a problem. Energy will always be consumed, whether to store it in batteries, tanks, or fuels, to supply computing power and secure the Blockchain, to desalinate seawater... As always, it is a matter of infrastructure and design.
There is, therefore, no reason not to invest massively in making renewable energy economically competitive and building consumption infrastructure, taking into account their intermittent nature.
Nuclear energy
Nuclear energy suffers from a heavy legacy associated with its military origin and serious accidents. It also suffers, particularly in France and the United States, from an aging fleet and a third generation (EPR) that failed because it was much too expensive.
Nuclear power is undoubtedly the energy of the future because it can combine the practical aspects of fossil fuels (density, transport, reliability) and the low emissions of renewable energy.
It is, therefore, a technological question... And therefore, a financing question: we must design the fourth-generation nuclear power plant: standardized, simplified, secured, and easy to build.
The mass construction of these plants will be the key to reducing the consumption of fossil fuels.
In parallel, research on fusion will lead to the development of the next generation of reactors in a few decades, which will allow the growth of energy production and therefore the development of human civilization.
Energy is the ultimate currency of the progress of civilization. Any policy that aims to limit its production jeopardizes human construction. It is through abundant energy that we can face the future and pursue our development!