It would be nice if we could invest about $1 trillion in alternative energy research but I guess we are spending that on bailing out Wall Street. If we make the commitment, we could do it, but we have no money. Oh yeah, I forgot about Iraq and more tax cuts for the super rich.

You imply that alternative energy sources can replace oil. No way, not at our current rates of consumption. Why can't folks accept that we all must use less energy?

The exponential function must have its way with us eventually.

We simply cannot consume our way out of an overconsumption problem, so this grasping at technofixes is not only fruitless, but counterproductive.

Modern civilization? You're goin' DOWN!

The author did not mention that the concentration of (atomic) energy in matter is 2 billion times higher than the concentration of (caloric) energy in oil. "Petroleum holds huge amounts of energy in small volumes and masses"??? Try uranium. And radioactive waste may be less immediately threatening than global warming.

Technology and energy consumption is the result of almost 8 billion people on the planet. What the hell else are we going to do?

Keep breeding cause Jebus tells you to!

I agree Matt. Malthus was not wrong about the out come, just the timing. It's hard to lower your environmental foot print but it is easy to make sure they stop with you. Some of us have to stop breeding. I will. But that doesn't mean I can't practice breeding...who wants some practice?