just be smart about it

I'm not at all against the idea of going green in principle; it's just that the people making the proposals and plans need to think through the implications of their "green" solutions. Which no one really has, apparently.

Korea is aggressively into solar energy; on one level, this is laudable, but has the country thought about what happens when the time comes to dispose of all of those solar panels? It's going to be a fucking mess. I also think that Korea's commitment to wind energy is misguided at best, for reasons I'd laid out years ago on my Jeju-related walk blog.

The sticking point, though, is this: Even if people like me are constantly crying Give me something better!, the problem is that we can't reach something better without going through the intermediary phase of producing inefficient and ultimately harmful solutions. So we're kind of stuck making these blind, fumbling efforts until someone comes along and gives us a paradigm-shaking, revolutionary new idea. All of this is consistent with human nature. So on the one hand, I can't stand the horrible "green" solutions we currently have, but on the other hand, I recognize that we have little choice, as a race, but to go through iteration after iteration of design and development to reach something that's truly golden.

Ultimately, I think we're going to have to rely on the constant, uninterrupted supply of energy emanating from our sun. It's just a matter of efficiently gathering, storing, and beaming that energy down to Earth for human use. I say "just a matter," but of course, there's the rub. Getting to that point will be no mean feat. Otherwise, we need to keep working on fusion.

In the meantime, there's Germany. Jesus.