The truth is, I pretty much agree with you. The most immediate and significant step we can take isn’t using renewable energy…It’s ending production of the mountains of crap which is produced simply to sell. To survive—and this is because we would be starting so late to take emergency measures—we should only produce essential things like food (but NO beef, thank you!), medicine and items that are necessary for life.

We would spend less time working to literally destroy the planet we live on. Our new expansive leisure would give us time to relate to other human beings in person, enjoy each others community, remember our common humanity.

By minimizing production, we should be able to minimize energy use. That said, it’s critical that we end fossil fuel and when energy is needed, we should use hydro, solar, wind or whatever is the least damaging source available.

I’d disagree with you, but you are right. I’m most likely to defend alternative energy technology when somebody either defends oil, or goes into a passionate promotion of nuclear.

I am a fan of the ingenuity that goes into developing and improving technologies. But that doesn’t mean we should be using it all.