Nuclear power. "The Other Green Energy". Except, of course, for the occasional meltdown and nuclear waste. Meltdowns aren't actually a problem, though, assuming you don't build your plant in a tectonically active area or without a containment dome.
Radioactive waste is something else. People make a big deal about how it lasts essentially forever and is hard to contain. But what is missed, is that radioactive waste is not a problem, it's a solution.
Radioactive waste has a peculiar quality called radiolysis that makes it difficult to store safely. Radiolysis is the phenomenon of water molecules being broken down into hydrogen and oxygen by radiation. This causes dangerous buildups of hydrogen and oxygen, which in turn can cause fires, explosions or sheer material fatigue in containment units. This is not a problem, but a blessing in disguise.
Commercial fusion power demands two things: very large quantities of deuterium and tritium, and armies of experts to build and operate the reactors. Obviously, the armies of experts and fuel supplies cannot be snapped into being overnight. The key to successful commercial fusion power, is to first make a big investment into fission power. Such an investment will create the fuel infrastructure and an immediate economic incentive to train nuclear engineers and techicians to staff the fission plants, who can then be easily cross-trained in the operation of fusion plants.
Fission and fusion power can together provide limitless green energy. Now, this will have an impact much more significant than just bringing down our power bills. When the non-economic costs of energy use - fuel, environment, sheer space - are no longer a consideration, a Green society and economy changes from one based on scarcity to one based on sheer technical ingenuity. Energy is to production as money is to economy - with the correct infrastructure, it can be turned into anything. Take desalination, for example. With unlimited green energy, desal will become possible and practical on an almost unlimited scale. It may eventually be possible to reinfuse our depleted aquifers. Synthetic fossil fuels, which cost much more energy to produce than is released by their combustion, would become practical. Recycling of even the most abject waste would become practical. We might even see such marvels as the replacement of the interstate highway with a sort of giant conveyor belt.
Perhaps the biggest impact of unlimited green energy would be relieving the pressure to use more energy-efficient but less eco-friendly materials.
Currently, the cost of energy and scarcity-based competitive forces make the use of ecologically and aesthetically sound materials such as wood and stone impractical. We make roads out of asphalt and buildings out of plywood because competitive forces compel us to do what is cheap in the short run, rather than effective or sustainable. Yet cobblestone roads are more durable, more environmentally friendly, and require less frequent repair; wood has the advantage of being infinitely renewable and carbon-negative (because every time a tree is grown, cut down to make something, and another tree grown in its place, that much carbon is being removed from the biosphere).
Our irrational economy is premised on our scarcity-based Capitalist system. But, due to high technology, scarcity is no longer an issue. The premise of our economy is false; the Capitalist system is obsolete.
Green Socialist economics, in which clean energy would be essentially unlimited and a living wage guranteed, would permit non-scarcity based production - production that truly puts quality before economy. After all, who needs the efficiency of asphalt roads or motorized ships when the economy is not at full employment?
High technology and Green Socialism would allow mankind to truly reclaim what has been lost - a pristine environment and a humane quality of life.
So - how to organize this?
First, as I said, there should be a fundamental shift in our economy from scarcity to social actualization. Citizens should work to improve their lot, not for fear of losing it. The necessary policies are pretty straightforward - guaranteed food, housing, medical care, meritocratic education, etc.
Second, there must be a cultural shift in favor of humanist values. I have come to believe that humanist values are fundamentally non-rational, and therefore can adequately be addressed only by passionate movements like religion and nationalism.
There must be a new, green democratic socialist nationalism and religious observance premised on the development of the individual as the avatar of the group. In practice, this means a 21st century equivalent of the gamesmanship depicted in the Homeric Hymns - men from different communities competing for honor for their person and city-state. This would come to pass largely on its own - with material considerations no longer being a driving force in society, it is reasonable to believe people will seek other ways to distinguish themselves than conspicuous consumption. I do not believe that this item actually requires any social action other than undermining Capitalism.
The World Wars are best understood as Capitalism opting out of peaceful gamesmanship, preferring the gains to be had through military dictatorship and war. If the Capitalists and militarists had lost the first round of the 20th century, and the Social Democrats had won, it is likely that such a world would have eventually metasized, just as is currently coming to be the case in many liberal-minded communities in the Western World, where people seek notoriety through blogging or playing MMOs or doing research. While many of these pursuits are of dubious nobility, vacillating Capitalism will provide more social room for humanism to flourish. After all, why make artisan crafts or freeware or farmer's markets when you need to pay the bills and are just going to get crushed by Wal-Mart, even though efficiency is irrelevant because there's enough to go around?
I want to restate this fact one more time. ***Our economics of scarcity are premised on the biggest lie in the world.***
Poverty and want aren't caused by the global economy not being productive enough; they are caused by the malicious greed of the rich seeking to enslave the world for their own aggrandizement. There is, in fact, enough to go around. Productivity today is so astronomical that it would be exceptionally difficult at the world's level of development for that to cease to be the case.
My vision is of a world of fusion-fission plants, infotech, tree farms, zepplins, maglevs, cobble-stone roads, and clipper ships. A world of space stations and cathedrals, MMO coliseums and lyceums.
Finally, the economy for non-essential goods should be premised on ecological impact. To this end, I believe that fiat money and the gold standard should be replaced by money that literally grows on trees.
How to fix our country's problems by making money grow on trees will be the topic of my next article.
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