Miscellany: A (Really) Inconvenient Truth

I was listening to Fresh Air today and there was an interesting interview with Jeff Goodell, author of "Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future." It's a fairly thorough (if perhaps one-sided) overview of the coal industry in the United States, past and present. Goodell is pretty knowledgable, though the interview is punctuated by some fairly inane questions from Terry Gross (Goodell: "There's been talk about bringing in coal miners from China or South America, but it always creates a firestorm of controversy"/Gross: "Why's that?").

Most importantly, though, it was a good reminder that to generate the electricity for every sleek iPod, HDTV, or PS3, we're essentially burning rocks that we dig up out of the ground like we have since the 19th century. The major electricity sinks have always been air conditioning, appliances, and lighting, but now computers and high-end electronics are getting more and more power-hungry.

I'm somehow reminded of our senior year project in high school, regarding energy conservation. We calculated the amount of energy the school could save if we built a wind generator to supplement our power needs. It wasn't much, to say the least. The hardest, most inconvenient truth is this - humanity's growing need for energy won't be solved until someone comes up with viable one of these.