All this hand-wringing we've done, and we're not yet even oriented in the right direction to begin addressing this problem yet.

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See: Hyperion
Nuclear reactors can be FACTORY made fast. Nuclear power
will LOWER the price of electricity by 30%. Standardized,
assembly line manufacture of nuclear reactors to replace coal
burners will lower the price of electricity even more.

YES WE CAN replace every coal burner on earth with a nuclear
reactor in 8 years, AND WE CAN MAKE A PROFIT ON THEM.
We can provide electricity to the Chinese peasants for AT LEAST
30% LESS than what they would pay for electricity from coal.
Want a high paying green job? Work at the nuclear reactor
factory that we have to build, or at a Canadian nuclear reactor
factory.

Of course, a much nicer scenario should have happened:
Americans should have replaced all coal fired power plants with
nuclear reactors long ago. That would require that Americans
had been educated properly. ALL high school students should
have taken 4 years of physics, 4 years of chemistry, 4 years of
biology and 8 years of math, starting in 1930. If that had
happened, the coal industry would have had no hope of driving
Americans paranoid of all things nuclear.

I have no connection with the nuclear power industry. I have
never had any connection with the nuclear power industry. I am
not being paid by anyone to post on Alternet. My sole motive is
to avoid death in the collapse of civilization and to avoid
extinction due to global warming.

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The following was downloaded from Hyperion
"Why Nuclear?
Each location on the planet offers its own unique set of energy
needs and challenges. No one type of technology can provide the
most appropriate solution everywhere. That’s why in order to
accommodate everyone on our planet, mankind must utilize a mix
of clean energy technologies that includes wind, solar, geothermal,
and nuclear.

None of the options available today are as perfect as we would
like them to be. Geothermal has its obvious site limitations, but so
do wind and solar. In addition to requiring large tracts of land for
“wind farms” and solar panels, the drawback of these
technologies is that neither can offer consistent, reliable baseload
electricity. When the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow
these types of plants do not deliver electricity.

Regardless of the weather, nuclear-based power plants can
produce base load electricity 24/7 with no greenhouse-gas
emissions.

And while researchers are constantly seeking ways to make
nuclear even more safe and efficient than it is now, nuclear is not a
“new” alternative to fossil fuel-based energy. It is the safest, most
reliable, and least harmful way to generate electricity. The 104
nuclear power plants operating in the U.S. provide over 20% of
the country’s electricity. For some nations, this percentage is
much more; in France 78% of the country’s electricity comes
from nuclear.

Now with Hyperion, communities and their infrastructures,
emergency operations, military bases and even industrial
operations, that, because of land limitations or other concerns,
could never hope for reliable nuclear power, can enjoy its benefits.
Hyperion Power Modules (HPMs) are small enough to be
transported by truck or ship, and are setup and operable quickly –
in much less time than the 10+ years it takes to build a traditional
nuclear power plant! Whether the location is a small island, a
remote mining site, or a hospital campus that needs independent
backup power, everyone can enjoy safe, clean, reliable, affordable
power."

Note that local construction people can dig the hole in the ground
that a Hyperion reactor needs and do all of the hookup work and
so on. The Hyperion factory makes a module and brings the
module on a truck and places the module in the hole. Local
people do the rest, including operating the reactor and guarding
the site to keep anybody from digging up the module. There are
jobs to be had at the factory and at the sites. The factory replaces
the fuel module every 5 years or so, and recycles the fuel.

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Maybe we can not stop immediately the heat for our old parents and/or young children, or driving to and from work everyday, but we CAN and MUST stop clear cutting the forests that trap CO2, filter other pollutants and hold and filter our headwaters.
The State of West Virginia alone has the surface area of TEXAS (second largest state in the Union after Alaska) and is mostly covered with forest-- but this is rapidly changing as America's need for power is being met by the earth-eating destructo Mountain Top Removal coal mining companies. This process doesn't just clear cut the top of the mountain, it digs out the mountain to 700-800 feet deep, literally turning it inside out and depositing the "burden" in the hollows and streams. This greatly reduced the surface area of viable forest sponge of Appalachia-- LOOK NOW!! at ilovemountains.org to see the rates and scale of this devastation, and raise up your arms and horns to the sky and make it stop!! Massey Coal has "promised" to increase production by 40% in two years! Three mountains are going down a WEEK! Giant beautiful mountains teeming with owls, game, trees, mosses, liverworts, everything-- including my ideology and personal mythology are being ravaged.
One incredible example of wrong-doing is Coal River Mountain-- with a Wind Farm Feasibility Study complete and super-positive, the DEP and Governor Manchin still give Massey Coal a permit to destroy this area!
You want to know why emissions are so high? The great forest equalizers are disappearing. SAve your neck-- save my home-- save the forested mountains of Appalachia

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A question for you folks that are advocating Nuclear Energy as the only way to reduct CO2 ommissions. Are you prepared to have the nuclear plants built and the nuclear waste stored in your neighborhood? If not, then I suggest you quit advocating nuclear option which is very dirty in the long run, and get on the real clean energy band wagon of renewable resources like solar, wind, wave etc.

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