Discussion on:

2012: Terra incognita

Chris,

I'd like to see you put that big brain to work looking into the future in 5 year intervals, perhaps 10 year intervals after a few 5s, perhaps one of these a month interspersed with you regular concerns. I imagine each blog being completely dualistic, one section if we do everything right, and another section if we do everything wrong, and a final section about what you think is possible, leaving the reader to fill in his/her own blanks about that final section.

Just a thought, from perhaps wanting to not have to deal with mass data each and every time and yearning to see you let the value and subjective cat out of the bag.

Great suggestion, Ron, thanks. Perhaps I will let fly with more opinion and less data in the coming year.

Chris,

I just want to say thank you for injecting a dose of reality in an area that's often full of demagoguery. I always look forward to your weekly missives.

I think a lot of people around the world can see that our current ways are not sustainable and coming to an end (probably sooner than we expect) but they can't see a clear path to where the future will take us. This feeds the unrest around the world. Like you I expect things will get a lot worse before they get better. I just hope the coming crash will be gentle with us. Thank God I paid off my house last year.

Dave

Carter had the fore thought that we needed to address our energy situation after the oil embargo. The creation of the DOE was supposed to find those long-term solutions.

Sadly the DOE has been a complete failure with the Solyndra mess being the most recent in a long line of crony payback projects funded through the DOE.

Overall energy technology has made tiny steps forward in the last 30+ years for the trillions invested.

We could be in a much stronger position to handle the coming storm if the substance to meet the need had followed the hope in the vision.

It was a busy time of year for me and I'm catching up.

Thanks for the wonderful column.