You expect "the market" -- which is driven more by profit
than altruism -- to provide a useful solution?

You expect the government, which is driven more by establishing
and growing a power base, than doing anything useful for its
constituents, to provide a useful solution?

It does in other areas.


Ok, answering a question with a question is not really an answer, but
I couldn't resist. Lacking any better alternatives, I do think the
market will save our collective posteriors once again as it has
countless times in the past. I'll spare you the standard lecture on
greed and need. Suffice to say that if we run out of fossil fuels,
numerous enterprising entrepreneurs will provide a variety of
alternatives.

You have missed the point. This is something "we" should have been working
on for the past 60 years. The energy doesn't want to do very much because it
wants prices to go through the roof.


The winners will be what the consumer buys, not what
the government mandates.

They government doesn't have to mandate anything. It can support and
encourage a wide variety of solutions.


Where do you come off claiming most of the solutions involve "austerity
programs, genocide, [or] redistribution of wealth". (I'm not sure what
you
mean by "indirect self-enrichment". Dale Gribble selling carbon offsets?)

Austerity programs are those that offer either a penalty for over-use,
or an incentive or subsidy for switching to alternatives. Neither
method will survive for long. Subsidizing solar installations is fine
for the short term, but cannot be supported for maybe a few more years
as solar adoption grows. All incentives seem to do is accelerate the
process of adoption. If you want real accelerated conversion, just
watch what happens when you run out of oil or turn off the
electricity.

That's exactly what we DON'T want to happen. You don't wait until the well
runs dry before you start digging another well.

Humans can anticipate what will happen and take steps to prevent it.

All I hear from you and the others is hatred of government; mindless worship
of "the marketplace"; and a belief that "something will happen to save us"
without our having to take any initial steps.

Go back to reading Ayn Rand.


Incidentally, the English crown did a land grab of most of the forests
in England in order to insure that there would be enough big trees
needed for ship building. Meanwhile, the peasants froze during the
worst part of the little ice age. We're going to have more of the
same when we run out of oil.

If we work to develop alternative energy sources, there WON'T BE a "running
out of oil" problem.


Yep, because there's little (financial) incentive to do anything
different at this time. I got a good hint in 1974, when I decided
that the energy crisis of 73-74 would produce a market for a better
electric vehicle. So, I designed and partially built what I
considered to be a better machine. There was considerable interest
until the day the Arabs turned the oil back on, when all interest
evaporated. Lesson learned... nobody wants a solution to a
non-existent problem.

Correction... The problem still exists, but people refust to acknowledge it.