Is the harvesting and use of natural gas (like we do with oil) inevitable?

Better natural gas than coal. But the real question is, How much will we make ourselves suffer before we embrace safe clean nuclear power?

 

Yes, exactly that.

 

Nobody minds having a safe nuclear plant in their backyard.
Everybody minds having an unsafe plant.

 

Nuclear power plant accidents happen extremely infrequently. But when they do happen, the results are catastrophic. And then there's the little question of what to do with waste that will be highly radioactive for a hundred thousand years. Jesus died less than 2,000 years ago. Nuclear power plants condemn the future. Of course, who gives a damn what the Earth is like in 2,000 years, or even in a hundred years? Nobody old enough to read this today will be alive in a hundred years. So let's just find some place we can bury the stuff and keep it safe for 100 years, and screw the following 999,900 years. Hey, we'll probably go extinct in the next 100 years anyway from all our other pollution, so why worry about radioactivity.

Build those nukes! Lots of them. Just, please, not near me. :bounce:

 

It is not the concern about the safety of the nuclear power plant that people don't like in their backyard. It is the venting of radioactive gases from the plant which is permitted by federal law. Even the amount is relative small but you don't want to live down wind from the nuclear power plant.

 

I suspect if the costs of operating a nuclear plant included removal of waste and sending it into the sun the nuclear option would not be cost effective.

I also suspect that any source of fuel, including natural gas, will be mined and harvested to the fullest extent based upon need, consumption, and economics.

The only realistic way to reduce the carbon footprint to the extent necessary to preserve our existence long term in the manner to which we are accustomed, in my opinion, is to either reduce reliance or population. Regardless of what we do, the earth will ultimately survive and recover. Preservation of our species is a different matter.

 

Meanwhile few complain about the 125 million tonnes of radioactive ash created each year by coal-fired power plants in the US alone. Apparently most people have no sense of scale or proportion.

 

The federal government put a cap on the liability of nuclear power plants. If one goes BOOM, and causes, say, a billion dollars in damage, they're only liable up to the cap, which is IIRC 300 million dollars. What this does is it reduces the insurance cost. Insurance companies are very good at assessing risk. If nuclear power plants had to buy insurance to the full amount of any possible damage, it would be so expensive nobody could afford to operate one. This constitutes a humungous federal subsidy on nuclear power.

Coal is unacceptable also. But saying we should move to nuclear because coal is dreadful, is like saying we should drink cyanide because arsenic is poisonous.

 

Cover the ocean (all of it) in floating solar panels. job done.

 

Bad idea. There'd be so much energy it would burn out the grid.

Seriously, though, the problem with floating anything is that the ocean can get very rough. Rough enough to destroy pretty much anything humans can build, and certainly anything built to be cost effective. And anyway, if we just covered all our roofs with solar panels we'd have more energy than we could use, and we'd have it where we need it rather than half a world away.

 

We would also be one major volcanic event away from disaster...

 

Conservation and efficiency are the most cost effective. Proper design and maintenance are key vs. substituting oil or natural gas for knowledge. Just apply the knowledge to start with.

 

I don't get the connection??
If we had solar panels on all house roofs, how are we one major volcanic away from disaster.

I mean, if you are talking about an event that would prevent sunlight from reaching rooftop solar panels worldwide (or even nationwide) I think that would be a disaster weather or not there were solar panels on roofs.

 

We are one major volcanic event away from disaster anyway. It's called Yellowstone. A prehistoric volcanic crater, and active zone with the potential to exterminate the human race when it goes off.

 

That's a relief