Standard of living
"What does greenpeace suggest as an alternative?
We all love our Computers, DVD players, Xboxes and TV's more than we love 'Nature'. and anyone who says different is either a fool or a liar!"
This is a very good point, actually. We're brainwashed from a very early age to want more and more consumer goods. Why? Because using more is the only way that shares can increase in price year on year rather than stabalise. Since all the people involved in government have their snouts in the capitalist trough in one way or another they have to drive demand ever upwards to keep the backhanders and cosy non-exec directorships coming.
But in reality, my standard of living is fine right now. I don't need it to improve at all. So, one alternative is to stop increasing our usage every year just so that Jeremy Stockbroker can buy a new Porche. Instead of puring more and more energy down the drain and having to find ways to supply it, maybe we should just concentrate on using less.
Nucear isn't a great answer, not just because no one has solved the waste issue, but because it's fuel distribution is even worse than oil's. If we depend on uranium mines for our economy there'll be even more wars than at the moment. Sunshine, for example, is something America has quite a lot of, so there might not be any need for them to send teams of murderers, rapists, and torturers all over the world to secure supplies if we got solar working well. Which would be an improvement for everyone everywhere.