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lysianth t1_iy91xdz wrote

Reply to comment by Spartanfred104 in Rolls-Royce successfully tests hydrogen-powered jet engine | Britain's Rolls-Royce said it has successfully run an aircraft engine on hydrogen, a world aviation first that marks a major step towards proving the gas could be key to decarbonising air travel. by yourSAS

Your viewpoint is as damaging as the corporations releasing fossils fuels. People like you will lead the way to a downward spiral of society by telling everyone theres nothing we can do.

Not a single one of those problems is unsolvable. Not a single one of those statements makes green energy less efficient than coal.

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Spartanfred104 t1_iy925ph wrote

We are already on the downward spiral. "people like you" you mean someone who sees what has to happen. Humans are a species in the overshoot of their ecological environment. This is commonplace. Species go into overshoot all the time and from the point of view of nature, it is a feature and not a bug because overshoot introduces creative disruptions. This may however be the first time that a species has gone into overshoot globally rather than locally.

The size and complexity of civilization is an emergent property of exploiting the stored sunlight in fossil energy. The party will soon end. All use of energy to perform work increases entropy which degrades the physical environment in which it is used. Our problem is that we discovered 500 million years of stored sunlight and used it all up in 200 years.

People searching for substitutes for fossil fuels with the expectation that we won’t have to live with less energy have not thought it through. Learning to live with the same energy people in 1721 used is the challenge we face this century.

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lysianth t1_iy947nx wrote

Cynicism is not productive, it does not make you enlightened. Its just another form of gullibility.

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Spartanfred104 t1_iy95hzb wrote

As opposed to techno-optimism or hopium?

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lysianth t1_iy9828w wrote

All of those also get us nowhere.

We can have a sustainable society. Its not impossible, but its going to take work. Hard work. And no small amount of sacrifice.

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Spartanfred104 t1_iy99p9s wrote

Yep, it's going to take an absolute monumental shift in the way we live, work and exist. I'm actually really excited for the change, it's going to be hard for many but if it pivots us out of our death spiral I'm all for it.

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