I am afraid you are right Glenn. Thorium reactors could have made a huge
difference 50 years ago but humanity did instead all the wrong things. If
thorium reactors could just replace coal, fracking and tar sands and deep
see drilling and high pressure uranium reactors it could only help for the
good.Chances are that if thorium is developed it will become just another
energy supplier on top of all the rest and we are very late in the day with
our extinction possible in the near future. (some say 20-30 years)
I can personally relate to that. I see winter crops drowning here now that
have always supported us. Trees are dying here and not from heat and drought
but from incessant rain and wet. In other parts of the globe forests are
burning.
More life is indeed critical.
John
"Makes one wonder why everyone on earth is worrying about global
warming, and thinking we're running out of energy, when we have a
technology requiring relatively common fuels (enough so that we can say
there's an infinite supply for the next few centuries), ….”
Thorium won't stop global warming Or flooding, drought, extinction,
desertification, deforestation, hunger, acidified oceans etc., for that
matter. The globe is already warm, and will warm another degree F, no
matter the energy source, unless there is a lot more life in the biosphere
and soil, and in a hurry. The other effects are already present, and will
also worsen without more life to stabilize our earth.
Thorium may or may not satisfy many of our energy needs, but it won't bring
a planet back to life. I'm willing to discuss the possibility of thorium
energy, but but as an energy fix. Don't hype it as an earth-system fix.
More life, a massive amount, is critical, no matter all the other good and
necessary things we do. How much more is anybody's guess. And how we do
it ...? It will need to be much more than reducing our carbon footprints,
much more than personal responsibility.