Renewable energy = freedom, and we get to address climate change to boot.  With the Copenhagen Summit in full swing, I wanted to add this to the discussion.

200,000 years ago, we first controlled fire, 4,000 years ago we invented the wheel, and 150 years ago we began burning every fossil fuel we could dig out of the ground.  That era will end and be just a tiny blip in the story of man.  However, every effort man has made to get more control over energy from outside of his body, and get more efficient in using that energy, his standard of living has increased, and his level of freedom has increased.

The ultimate end game of man’s progress in the control of energy is to renewably create his energy.  Once that is achieved, there will be no more fighting over resources, and no limit to man’s potential.  Energy = Freedom, or more precisely, renewable energy brings freedom.

And by the way, renewable energy means no emissions, and no carbon, so you get that benefit also.  But I would say the following – that carbon control should not be the cake, it should be the icing.  If you believe that, then the debate over man’s causality in climate change is a moot point, and the only thing that matters is to find the single most cost-effective way to enter the entirely renewable energy era.