jonathan wrote:
"Sylvia Else" wrote in message
...
jonathan wrote:

Who on the planet would not
benefit from reversing the current energy trend, and creating a trend
of ever more abundant, cleaner and cheaper energy over time?
I'm afraid I can't agree about the space solar power concept. I just can't see
how the economics pan out compared with surface based solar power.

The economics are irrelevant, it's the trend reversal that matters.

Those are two different things. Compare the economics with a
world of fifteen billion people which is almost /entirely industrialized/.
The current solution they are moving to is coal, not solar btw.
Those are two very ominous trends. Combine that with the realization
that the current estimates of oil reserves are highly inflated. Due to
OPEC basing annual quotas on estimated reserves, the more
a country /claims/ to have in the ground, the more they can pump.
There is roughly half the oil left than is currently estimated.

The recent spike in oil from $40 to $160 is a non-linear response
characteristic of a stressed or thin system. Where a minor disruption
on the in put side, creates a massive response on the output.
This is the sign of a system wide breaking or tipping point.
We are ALREADY AT THE TIPPING POINT for fossil fuels
and few seem to appreciate it.

A small disturbance, at a tipping or critical point, say the impending
sanctions on Iran, can cascade into a massive panic situation overnight.
A panic situation so well displayed by the recent stock market crash.
The mathematics of such panics are my hobby as they form the basis
of my trading strategy.

And the oil CRASH will happen as quickly as the stock market crash, overnight.
We can recover from the stock market crash, since it was essentially a
hoarding of cash.where people sold everything and waited it out.

But when the oil crash hits, that will be something entirely different
as the sudden overnight hoarding of oil will bring down the industrialized
world...overnight. How about a generation returned against their will
to a pre- industrial state? The world wide collapse of our cities.
It's going to happen overnight someday soon unless a new
source of energy, even an expensive one, even a pipe-dream enters
the market with the p r o m i s e ....of .... e n d l e s s g r o w t h.

It is that PERCEPTION of a new endless source that will prevent
The Next Great Crash. Panics are not started by FACTS, they are
started by FEARS amidst a thin or critically behaving system.

We need that promising new source and we need it soon.

The decision itself, the commitment alone is enough to
avert a panic situation, as markets based their decisions
on what will be, not what is. They anticipate.

The world needs to believe our energy future is bright.
They need to be convinced by a dedicating ourselves
to that goal. That perception is needed, and soon.

The oil crash can be averted without building single
solar powered satellite. The economics, the details
don't matter right now.

We need a new direction. What solutions are finally settled
on down the road will take care of themselves, it' the...
NEW TREND which has the ability to change the world.

Combine at that with the simple fact NASA itself needs a
new direction, a new reason for being. I mean, the world
is there for the saving.

It's right there waiting to be saved.

I fear I'm not succeeding in making my point properly. Nothing new there.

If a point is reached, or has been reached, at which the use of fossil
fuels, or the increased use thereof, is not acceptable because of the
effects on the evironment, and/or climate, then an alternative needs to
be found.

But that doesn't mean that because space based solar power is an
alternative, that it's what must be used.

Land based solar power is also an alternative. Fusion power is also
possibly an alternative, but it's twenty five years away, and always has
been.

But of the acceptable alternatives, you want to use the cheapest. To do
otherwise involves throwing money away. I don't see how space based
solar power can be cheaper than land based solar power, even after
you've address the particular issues that the latter has.

Sylvia.