10-05-2009, 01:21 PM
I've always felt that we'd eventually see a major new renewable energy source come out of China or India before we invented it here. We have little incentive in the West. We've really spent a laughably small amount on fusion research. Wasn't America's stake in the project like $1 billion? That's chump change. I think we just don't really care because deep down, where money matters, "global warming" is not seen as a real crisis and we have enough natural resources to keep us in business for decades yet, so we're in no hurry to develop anything. These projects will continue to get some chump change, but that's all it is.
You'll know when global warming is serious business or when the energy crisis becomes real, because you'll see companies like Exxon start pumping huge amount of money into R&D.
Whereas China could benefit hugely from something like that right now. Power is going to be a huge barrier for them. If they could come up with something cheap, easy and renewable, they'd solve a major problem for their country. They have the incentive and I'd bet that's where the next big "green" technology comes from. (They'd rather wait for us to invent it and then steal the technology, but their need is a lot greater than ours.)
You'll know when global warming is serious business or when the energy crisis becomes real, because you'll see companies like Exxon start pumping huge amount of money into R&D.
Whereas China could benefit hugely from something like that right now. Power is going to be a huge barrier for them. If they could come up with something cheap, easy and renewable, they'd solve a major problem for their country. They have the incentive and I'd bet that's where the next big "green" technology comes from. (They'd rather wait for us to invent it and then steal the technology, but their need is a lot greater than ours.)