Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
There’s a reason the U.S. is asking the world to double down on fusion energy at the UN climate summit known as COP 28. The rest of the energy transition isn’t going as planned. It’s part of the fantasy of a painless energy transition.
It seems quite clear that the track we are on does not lead to the stars, but to ignominious self-termination of this whacky mode called modernity.
Fusion energy has long been touted as a panacea for our energy woes. Even if we are someday able to produce more energy than we consume in creating fusion reactions, fusion will turn out to be far messier and harder to implement than most people realize.
Sadly, fusion won’t save the Arctic from melting, but if we don’t put a stop to it, that breakthrough technology could someday melt us all.
So why all this attention toward the imagined potential for fusion energy? It is yet another attempt by those who believe that only a mega-scaled, technology-intensive approach can be a viable alternative to our current fossil fuel-dependent energy infrastructure.
